Slumber
by Nigella00
Summary: There is a reason that areas of Asgard have not been explored before. But they have set out to overstep these boundaries and find the enemies that lurk within a deep and peaceful slumber and, if they're lucky, they will live to tell the tale. Thor/Loki.


**A/N: I have decided to write several fics on Thor. Thorki of course- take that as a 'turn back now' thing if you dislike this. The first one is sort of a pre-Thor thing, except everyone knows Loki is adopted. This in itself has sort of stopped the whole 'Loki going mad' thing from happening. Because, really, Loki got sour and felt betrayed and just wanted to make his father proud. **

**And who the Hell knew what his quest was in Avengers? I think he was just hungry to rule now and be a good ruler- and still make his family proud. Unfortunately it seems as though the more Loki tries to be accepted by his family the blinder he becomes and the closer his Frost Giant senses come to seizing him.**

**So, therefore, I decided to avoid this all together with an ignorant and blissful truth. A, at the age of five, 'My son you are an adopted Frost Giant and we will teach you how to hold you powers and let you learn sorcery instead' truth. One that would have been followed by many tears, I am sure. None the less, Loki is fine now.**

**Not much changes in this story other than that being revealed. Loki is still a trickster and his and Thor's relationship starts out just as brotherly as it originally does, Loki just never goes sour. Of course he does use the 'I'm not your brother' trick a lot. And the 'you don't love me' one too. Odin loves them both (duh) and their mother too, blah, blah, blah. The Frost Giants are in delicate balance, blah, blah, blah. And, really, other than that truth Loki develops a bit of a crush on Thor. **

**Now, this story is way, way, way away from the Thor plot-line.**

**My others include a real pre-Thor where Loki betrays his father to go and rescue Thor and throws his betrayal away, tells Thor everything, and the two work it out while trying to be worthy together on Earth after Loki is stripped of his pride- but then there's the Frost Giants to await them later.**

**A post-Thor and a pre-Avengers where Loki comes back from the abyss and needs to gain everyone's trust again. A bittersweet been there, done that, except with Loki fighting off being the monster he feels he is and blah, blah, blah and again a deeper danger awaiting them. **

**A more different one is Loki is serving out a kind of exile on Earth when an evil clone of himself shows up. This lures out Thor and the Avengers. In this one Loki has a lot of problems, and very twisted reason. I'm not sure how much that'll be accepted because it also has Clint and Natasha having a baby, and Bruce and Tony and Steve all being all threesome with each other… **

**One where Loki hides out on Earth and decides to forget about Asgard and Thor because he doesn't want to be a bother before he's found by a new enemy (set sort of after Avengers, but Loki didn't kill all those people etc.)**

**Then there's a parallel thing again where Loki is the son of Laufey and Thor the son of Odin. That's kinda Romeo and Juliet except without all the dying… to them… lots of dying elsewhere though. And at first it's more fun-fighting and silly love and then the war breaks out and its all- crap! **

**My mother and I also have a theory Clint is still under Loki's control so I'm gonna turn that into a Thorki fic… somehow… **

**Finally, for now, a post-Avengers one where Loki returns to Asgard to await his punishment. Thor just wants answers and Loki tells him everything and also tells of how he hates everyone, blah, blah, blah but Odin and the others recognise this change in Loki and it turns out someone deeper and darker used Loki through the Tesseract. **

**For now, this sweet, blissful cute one where Loki, Thor, Sif and the three bumbling idiots as I've so kindly named them go off to do a quest for Odin and things quickly become more dangerous than warriors and sorcerer could anticipate…**

**Also, I don't believe in Prefaces or Prologues for fanfics. You know the deal. So here; enjoy your nice, fat chapter one.  
**

* * *

Breathing deeply, Loki spread his pale hand before him and tried to focus as best he could on it. Watching it carefully, his green eyes narrowed as he turned it over and over again, trying to make himself feel as cold as possible. He refused to use his magic.

But, alas, he didn't know what was magic and what were his ice powers and his skin just flexed under his tightened tendons.

Having held his breath, Loki gasped when he suddenly realised he needed to breathe and let it out with a small level of frustration. Turning his hand over, he didn't see one speck of blue anywhere on it and sighed, leaning back into his chair to massage his temple as he breathed carefully through his nose.

His father had told him mastering his Frost Giant side would help with their delicate balance. But the only times Loki could change the colour of his skin was when it was so cold that he had to. Never before had he managed to change it by choice and the young god gave a sigh.

He tried to recollect days when he remembered being terrified of Frost Giants.

Nothing. Long before he reached his age of being told of his true heritage the whole of Asgard had already been told of their young prince's true skin and nobody used to tell the tales of monsters anymore. In fact, most of those who knew Prince Loki cursed him for his mischief; never had he heard a foul word muttered about his race.

Exhausted from long hours of just trying to turn his hand blue the god rocked back his chair with his feet on the table. He was clad in a loose shirt, black pants and his usual boots. He didn't nearly feel as heavy as before.

Being as light and as airy as he was he felt asleep already.

Only fools fell asleep in a library. Especially Loki. He'd probably end up falling off of his chair in his slumber and finding a tower of books had buried him. His luck had never been the best. Not to mention Thor would get worried about him and look for him and Loki was pretty sure that idiot was allergic to the library. Or books of any kind.

Peeking out from under his long, delicate white fingers, a green orb watched his toes as they shimmered in the light of the candle from his leather texture. He watched them twitch as he moved them before they got the idea of his gaze and slid of the table.

This brought the chair forward, jogging Loki from his daze and he rubbed his hands over his face. His bedroom seemed so far away now…

Moving his arm around, he was about to push back his chair when he heard the door of the library open and milky light from the twilight flooded in from a corridor opened with glassless windows. A figure stood there that he couldn't see, momentarily blinded by the light.

Way back in his eye sockets, it hurt, but Loki blinked and winced and stubbornly refused to look away.

While he raised his hand to his face to try and see past the light a voice teased, "Have you been sleeping in here?" It was female, but it was far from delicate. It was hard, solid, powerful and mean. It was a voice Loki would never quite be able to hear without shuddering with distaste.

Slapping his hands down on the table, the young prince pushed the chair back as he stood. It squeaked but he had grown used to the sunlight and easily managed to manoeuver around the grumbling chair. "Lady Sif?"

"Who else?" The familiar face asked, flashing him a toothy grin, displaying her canines. To say Sif had never liked him was an understatement.

Biting back harsh words, Loki said, "Just wondering why you'd step into a library, that's all." To say Loki hated Sif with a passion was also an understatement.

Moving forward, the young god had one hand resting on a bookshelf. Though he wouldn't want to admit it, he was weak and tired. He'd woken early to come to the library but already it was getting dark outside. To think he'd been stuck practicing in here for hours on end was almost unbelievable but Loki had never been good of keeping track of time. So, brushing dirt onto his normally spotless hands, the young good slowly moved toward Sif, resting his arm there just for support if he needed it.

Watching him carefully, the woman's grey eyes regarded him with slight concern. He was, after all, an heir. A prince. Powerful. "I'm not a part of Thor, you know."

That made Loki snigger.

"So?" The woman asked. "Have you been sleeping in here or not?" She watched Loki with amusement and the other already knew she had her answer.

He could feel the bags under his eyes pulling at them, and the pain that dimmed at the back of his eyeballs had also not been forgotten. His breath, too, was shallow and quick and he was sure his body glimmered with sweat in the light as one hand slicked back his hair. He stopped half way from the table to Sif to catch his breath.

"If not, I suggest you rest up."

Curiosity killed the cat. Blinking up toward her, Loki asked, "Why?"

Pursing her thin lips, Sif glared over toward him and asked, "Have you really been so busy you'd forgotten that we have a quest?" Obviously. Shaking her long, dark hair, the woman added, "We leave early tomorrow and we don't need someone who's going to slow us down while we're looking at these unexplored places of Asgard, understood?"

"Is that a 'we need you Loki'?" The trickster couldn't help but ask.

"No," Sif said, carefully as the god moved to lean against the bookshelves with one hand slung across his chest to hold his other arm now. "It's a 'Thor'll get mad if you die' kind of thing. That and the fact your biological father will murder Odin if anything bad happens to you."

Cackling wasn't one of the laughs Loki usually did, but it often helped catch Sif off guard now that she was used to his sudden laughing. "Laufey doesn't care about me one bit. That's why I'm here. That's why I'm Odinson."

A prize at the end of the last war. A sign of peace.

Slightly more sadly the little prince added, "Laufey's not my father. He is not the man who raised me."

Sif had forgotten that Loki's past was a delicate nail she was best not knocking on. It would be problematic if the sorcerer got depressed before their big quest and began thinking through all his issues. Ever since the truce had been started Loki and Odin had become slightly detached as Laufey also wanted to get involved with his blood son and heir. But, like with adopted families on Midgard, Loki seemed to feel be belonged more here than there.

So, instead, the young lady asked, "You mastered being a Frost Giant yet?"

Glancing up at her from where he seemed to be thinking deeply, Loki's nose crinkled as he drew his dark eyebrows together, staring at her silhouette in the basking light. Eventually, he chuckled, and tilted his head back against the books, sliding his eyes closed. "Can't even turn my skin blue yet…" He rasped.

Softer, Sif said, "You seem to be working hard…" In reply, she received a tired noise and deepening breathing. A little firmer now, she said, "You can't sleep here." Another tired noise, this one seeming like rejection. "Loki."

His sleek, white eyelids stood open to focus on her face- though he couldn't really see it. From the corner of his white but blood-shot eyes, a cool green iris regarded her. "I know. But what can you do about it?"

It wasn't a threat. Not anything like it. It came with a casual shrug but Sif's eyes hardened like metal, steel, and her eyes shadowed over in the light. "I'll get Thor…" She said, tediously, still standing proudly and powerful under the arch of the open doors. Not even her hair swayed in the breeze, she was that strong.

Loki just thought she rather resembled a statue. Had the personality of one too. "You said yourself he won't step into a library…" Despite this knowledge, Loki detached himself from the bookshelves and casually breezed himself over to Sif, still admiring his boots as if looking at them gave them the power to walk.

If Sif did get Thor he would become moody. Loki didn't like being in Thor's wrath. It wasn't fun.

Turning with her prince, Sif followed Loki a little down the hall and then stopped. Flickering flames surrounded them as someone lighted the candles while the stars appeared in the orange sky from one of the many windows. And, from the corner of another, a shooting star's dusty tail twinkled as it faded. While Loki dully focused on that, his wandering also came to a halt as he tilted his head to listen for Sif.

Her giggling this time caught him off guard and he turned quickly, flicking his gaze to her as his face remained passive, eyebrows raised high in questioning and anticipation- but mostly from being tired. "Your chambers are down this corridor."

Looking over at her extending hand, the God of Mischief blinked and turned a little sour. "Thank you…" He spat, marching back slightly and taking the corner, putting his back to Sif happily as he disappeared into the looming darkness, his shadow the only thing left to remind Sif he was there as it died on the tiles.

"Goodnight Loki," Sif said, her smile evident in her voice as it twisted down the halls of the main corridor as she kept on, surpassing him in the trail of stars.

Deep in the darkness now, Loki didn't bother to call "Goodnight Sif…" very loudly as he didn't really want her to hear it. But he also didn't want to appear rude either so still said it quite loud, though only as if she were mere inches behind him.

Although dark, Loki had a good idea of roughly where he was, placing one hand to the wall next to him so he could register every door and every corridor he passed in the maze that had become his home.

After some time though the young god became so tired and confused he feared his own footsteps may be someone else's or that he'd gotten lost and wouldn't know his way back until morning.

Moving lazily, Loki reacted to a sudden light appearing through a door as if it were a demon and this time he stumbled backwards, raising both hands in front of his face to protect himself.

"Brother?" Past the flickering of the candle held in someone's hands confused electric blue eyes appeared, glowing golden in the dark. Eventually Thor's entire face was illuminated as he stepped out of his own chambers, bringing his door closed behind him with a peaceful clunk. Loki was too busy recovering from yet another light attack that burned his retina to take much interest in anything other than Thor's face. "What are you still doing up?"

Swallowing, Loki watched Thor push the candle out toward him and realised he couldn't be seen. The candle was pressed under his chin and his face was thrown into vision along with the rest of him and he heard Thor make a gasping-like noise.

"I was practicing…" Loki tried to say seriously but yawned and rubbed one of his eyes lazily with his hand, letting it slide down to his side afterwards. "I lost track of time," He admitted.

The warm glow of orange dispersed as Thor drew the candle back to himself, drawing Loki in with it. That was, until, Loki realised Thor was shirtless and gave a blush, retreating back into the shadows.

Now in the dark once again, his voice eerily and sincerely said, "Sorry for waking you up…"

Laughing, Thor said, "If you were sincere with your apologies you must be ill, brother." Then the God of Thunder scratched the back of his blond locks and said, "Actually, I wasn't sleeping. I was waiting for you to go by because I knew you weren't asleep. That's how I heard you." Loki nodded as if he'd understood everything Thor had said deeply and the elder brother laughed again. "Just how tired are you?"

Frowning, Loki said, "So tired I have no idea where my chambers are…"

Through the flickering of the candle, Loki felt Thor look him up and down quickly with his blue eyes but only turned when he heard a bristling that signalled his brother's beard moving. There he found a small smile settled on his face. "In you come," Thor said, leaning back on the door.

Just blinking at him like he'd done with Sif, Loki again stupidly asked, "What?"

Again the deep growl of laughing escaped from his brothers naked chest and Thor's upper body disappeared inside the room as he leaned around with his right hand, placing the candle on a dresser or table of some sort because when he reappeared he was empty handed but still bright. "You heard me. Get in."

Opening his mouth the tall, slim prince tried to argue back before a large hand clamped around his shoulder and swept him under another above his head that held the door open. Unlike the corridor, the candle actually made the room seem cosier rather than being an out of place light in the darkness.

It suited Thor's room. It made it seem warm.

"What am I going to do in here?" Loki asked, generally too tired to rewire his brain on its logical route of thinking. From where Thor had pushed him he'd wandered around his brothers room and stopped before another table, this one where Thor's prized Mjolnir rested in the coming night time and he swayed as he regarded it.

Things remained silent for some time and Loki began to get suspicious as his brother chuckled behind him, but when he turned to look over at him his brother breathed with a _whoosh. _

And then the candle went out and Loki was plunged into a new, trapped darkness unlike the one in the corridor.

He felt safe, sure, but the more alert Loki lurking inside of him was screaming at him that Thor was up to something and that he best remain careful. "Thor?" Loki tried, turning in circles but he couldn't tell where he was anymore. "Brother, this isn't fun-" Thwacking his leg into something solid, Loki gave a curse. "Damn it Thor!" He whispered as his hands made his way down to his complaining leg.

It was then he was bounded into by something warm and hard. It didn't attack his stomach or anything like that, so Loki felt no need to ruin his manliness by screaming. Instead something wound around his shoulders like chains, but much thicker and muscled and soft like skin against Loki's bare neck as it nestled under his hair eventually, chilling the young god's spine. The rest of the heat pushed against his own chest and sent him back and the air only squished out of him when he hit the covers of Thor's bed and the heavy, offending object fell on top of him, short-cut hair tickling Loki's cheek as a chin brushed there.

Annoyed and tired, not in the best of moods he could've been in for their playful games, Loki spat an annoyed, "Thor…" However, it only game out a wheezed breath as the other was still pushing him down.

The laughing became louder as the insolent oaf admitted his half-defeat and yet sweltered in his unfair victory. "Forgive me, brother, it is not often I can play such tricks on you."

Silence.

"Brother?" At first Thor began to worry as he was very aware that the young god below him could hardly breathe with his weight and shifted, allowing his eyes to become adjust to the musk darkness before he found himself smiling, listening to Loki's deep breaths below him and the warrior moved around a little only to light another candle on the dresser.

It was rare Loki's face was ever peaceful and Thor wanted to stain it into his memory. So, carefully lifting the candle so it wouldn't set fire to his large, silk double-bed and in turn his beloved brother, Thor looked down with surprise at the sleeping half-Estir.

Had he been that tired?

Gently smiling, he lowered the candle to illuminate his younger brother.

Loki's pale face was turned to the side so that his left ear was hidden under his hair and into the covers. His eyelids were smoothed downward and when sleeping even the ugly could appear delicate. Or, at least the smug. Normally knotted or tight eyebrows were completely relaxed in his sleep and his lips were too. Though it was a normal expression for Loki when trying to avoid punishment or stay out of things- also a face for when the sorcerer was deep in thinking- with his hair sprayed around and his hand slung lazily over his chest with deep breathing it looked, though Thor would never tell Loki that for fear of having snake-wine forever, cute.

Quickly moving the candle when it began leaking white wax, Thor caught the dangerous liquid before it could cause any harm to the unscarred, crystal-skin being below him and pushed it back lazily on his dresser but, because Loki was in the room tonight, he made extra caution so that it was away from the edge and anything flammable.

When Thor moved off of the bed he half expected the squeaking or the movement to wake Loki but it seemed his mischief maker really was tired and (though this scared Thor to even think it) like waking the dead. Thor didn't want to have to wake Loki but the other couldn't sleep sat horizontally across his bed, legs dangling over the edge, fully clothed.

It was either wake Loki up half-pissed or try doing the tasks himself and getting an ear-full when he accidently jogged the god awake.

Sighing, Thor stood up, placing his large hands onto his hips as he thought about how to go about this, watching Loki carefully, like he was a snake. Blue eyes narrowed as the elder god thought and the lips tightened like a lion with its mane. Sighing, Thor laughed. "He'll kill me," The god tried to tell himself as he moved toward Loki.

As if it would make it any better he mumbled his younger brothers name softly in the hope Loki may just kill him more peacefully when awakened. First he kneeled (Loki would've been so proud)and carefully removed his brothers shoes, stacking them at the edge of the bed so that he didn't have to either lend Loki his clothes or guard the half-naked boy to his own chambers. Following those came his socks and Thor had to be careful now that his brothers lean feet were bare. One tickle and Loki would wake.

Approaching it as if it was a game seemed a bit more logical for Thor as he carefully began to unzip the rest of the shirt down to Loki's collarbone and bit his lip thinking of just how to remove it. First he unbuckled the cuffs on his brother's wrists and laid them down with the shoes.

"Alright Loki," He said to himself. "Up you go." Pulling his brother toward him, he held the limp body in his arms. It felt strange having Loki sag against him, arms hooked over his shoulders and not moving when Thor's hands moved lower. Carefully, Thor moved his hands down Loki's back and grabbed the bottom of his shirt.

Counting slowly to three, Thor then pulled up the shirt in one quick motion and held it while Loki fell back onto the bed.

The demi-god could've cheered in victory but decided to keep it to himself unless he wanted Loki wake. Still sleeping just as peacefully as before, Loki seemed to have no reaction to temperature; though that was expected almost. Remaining slumbering, Thor then decided what to do next with Loki after having gotten his brother more bed-worthy.

Eventually after much moving from side to side around his brother to bide time he again grabbed Loki but this time scooped under the young god's knees once he had Loki on his shoulder. He hesitated, pink mouth slightly open, then grinned when Loki's head remained balanced on his shoulder even when he took his supporting hand away. While smiling smugly, the God of Thunder grabbed a triangle end of his covers and threw it back, exposing the underneath of the bed. Carefully, Thor then lowered Loki on the nearest side and winced when he remembered it was his side.

Not that he needed to sleep on that side… it was just…

He doubted Loki would appreciate waking up _smelling _of Thor.

With his little brother now successfully in bed Thor thought about doing his childish victory dance, but pushed it aside and decided to save the gossip for tomorrow when Fandral and Volstagg would take great interest in a new bait for mocking Loki. After all, he wouldn't want to spoil all his hard work now by dancing.

Leaning over his brother, he was contemplating on pulling the covers over him to test if he would stay asleep when he again caught his brothers sleeping face.

It looked too plain and simple to believe and Thor quickly, and quite smartly, wondered if his brother was pretending. He frowned as he thought about it, and then seemed to decide on an action after looking over toward the wall and back thinking 'nooo'.

Resting his hand in what was rightfully his pillow; he let Loki's head dip slightly as he completely leaned over the other this time so that their faces were successfully above one and other. Moving downward, a sun-kissed nose and one that belonged in ice met as Thor successfully carried out his plan. Since Loki didn't flash his teeth and laugh his usual laugh or even flicker open his eyes to glare at Thor in amusement the elder decided it was safe to assume his brother was, actually, still asleep.

Like… well, a kid. Wandering around in a daze. Rubbing his eyes and yawning. Now, asleep, and successfully undressed. Oh, Thor was going to mock him for his childishness.

Fondly watching his brother's soft face, Thor was relaxed to see his brother so at ease and chuckled. Even the hot breath on his face and the noise didn't wake Loki up. A memory bubbled to Thor's mind as he watched the face so different from that time.

He remembered when father had given him that adventurous quest only a few days ago. To explore. Find new worlds. It, too, had seemed very childish, but Thor had found himself reasonably excited about it. _Very _excited about it, and was looking forward to riding off to explore this new world he thought he knew so well.

Then, Loki had appeared with a stubborn look on his face, tongue in cheek. _"Wait!" _He'd looked, just a little upset. Just a little like he'd be missing Thor if he went away. A little… worried to be detached from his brother. _"Let me come with you. I'm coming with you!"_

Of course, when Thor had let him he mumbled on about needing a sorcerer to guard him and protecting the future king and how they'd always been partners. But, still, Thor caught the flustered look of relief on his younger brother's face. He'd always know Loki was upset whenever he was gone, but whenever he would come home Loki would be furious with jealousy and then complain of being babied when Thor came on quests with him because he wasn't as much as a brute and had brains instead. He'd never once thought it was because Loki missed his company.

Thor wanted to say something smart and touching to his sleeping brother as he remised but could think of nothing, and tapping Loki on the nose did not seem wise at that time. Nor did rolling over him onto the other side of the bed, especially when he still had to put out the candle for fear of it bothering either of the two of them in the night.

So, Thor retreated, and when his looming shadow moved from Loki and light cast across the slipping figure lips tightened. Thor laughed. His brother really did not like the light today. The laugh was a single one, far from the normal hearty grumble Thor usual announced and that was because the god had tactfully distracted himself from waking the other by lifting the brass handle of the candle to his lips, looking toward Loki and blowing it out.

Normally, when you blow out a candle, it smokes, but Thor couldn't see that now in the darkness. He couldn't see anything. The only way he knew Loki was still asleep was by his breathing, and used that as well as the touch of the bed to find his way around to the other side where he carefully clambered back in.

Under his large hands, the bed creaked and Thor gritted his teeth. Loki's breathing remained the same. He would know when his brother woke up. Loki had the strangest habit of halting his breathing whenever he awakened. Like he'd freshly woken from a nightmare. The creaking, a few curses and the scuffling of covers continued until Thor laid down none too close but none too far from Loki.

Slowly, reminding himself Loki was a snake, Thor lowered his head into the pillow gently and swallowed before he smiled in the darkness, watching Loki's white skin gleam as his eyes adapted to the lack of light.

Feeling along the soft and silky mattress, Thor's fingers flinched away from the feel of the cover at first, retreating, before returning to it, grabbing onto it tightly but stiffly with quick, sharp movements to prevent noise.

At least, Thor hoped it was his covers. They felt like his covers… or was it his cloak?

No. It was the covers.

Heaving a sigh too quiet to awake Loki, Thor was puzzled when he realised he had been holding his breath and remembered that, in order to survive and remain silent, he would have to keep breathing instead of continuing to hold it. Then his breathing would only get louder.

Putting the covers over him was easy. Putting the covers over Loki… now that was just asking to find trouble. Still, Thor managed to lean slightly over and move closer toward Loki to completely cover his brothers body, apart from his lean shoulders, in the soft guard and pulled back. His hand lingered, but Loki's breathing was still heavy and even, giving Thor all the tell-tale signs of one deep within sleep.

Lying down, Thor smiled and then allowed himself to snuggle into the covers.

At some point during the ticking minutes when Thor himself had gotten lazy Loki had moved around in his sleep and Thor had naturally moved with his brother, bringing the two closer. When fingers wrapped clumsily around his arm, but the steady breathing continued, Thor allowed his body to turn and blinked sleepily when his chin rested on something soft and slippery but was too tired to think about what it was, so blinked a little more and then closed his eyes, breathing into the nice smelling stuff with his nose as something hot budded a little at his neck.

* * *

"_I cannot believe you!"_

"Loki…" Thor complained after hearing those four little words, in many orders, thrown at him.

"Don't you dare 'Loki' me, Thor!" The younger boy said, the very same blush dusting over his slightly hollow, too-thin cheeks that had blessed it only an hour ago when Loki and Thor had woken up, staring into each other's faces wrapped in each other's arms slightly dazed from sleeping. Until Loki had screamed like a mad-man and flung himself from the bed. "I can't believe you did that to me."

Confused, the elder god chased after his brother down the hallway. "It wasn't like I did anything to you while you were sleeping," He tried to reason, grabbing onto his brothers green-clothed arm, just below a pointed elbow, where he was quickly and violently shoved off.

After waking up Loki had quickly thrown on his clothes, beetroot red, and darted out of the door while Thor was still trying to adjust to the morning.

And then, when he'd gotten ready, he'll pulled open his door to find his brother stomping down the halls like a little spoiled brat spluttering curses and screams back at him while he rushed after the other to try and catch him and explain himself.

He knew Loki would be angry. This angry? Well… yeah… but…

Although Loki stopped rushing down the hallway, his green cloak swishing like the tail of a cat you'd be better off not approaching- but who said Thor was smart?- and Thor stopped too trying to catch up with his brother, walking sideways, hand to collar in attempt to gain attention.

While Loki shot him a slightly embarrassed and flushed glance, biting his lip, the other god moved in front of Loki to block his way to the dining room where everything else (Thor bitterly reminded himself) was enjoying breakfast. If he didn't hurry, there would be no breakfast. Volstagg would make sure of that friend or not.

Talking slowly, as if trying to calm as small, angered child or a wounded, confused animal, which Loki technically was, Thor explained, "You would not rise, brother. I simply put you to bed. I was tired too and it is not my responsibility to carry you to your own chambers…" This firm reminding seemed to catch Loki off guard as the sorcerer swallowed and looked down at the ground before glancing back up at Thor with innocent jade eyes.

"Thank you," Loki then made to brush past him, his footsteps loud in the now silent hallways. "But I'd rather you just woke me up next time…"

Loki tried to think of other times he'd felt this embarrassed around Thor. He could conjure up none at the moment, but he knew there had been many times where things much worse had happened.

Unfortunately they seemed to not want to surface and comfort him right now.

A blissful escape was cut short when Thor seemed to decide staring down an empty corridor was not satisfying to him and whirled around, grabbing tightly onto Loki's wrist and making the other stiffen, turning around to face him with a heavy glare. "Loki." This time the elder god held no teasing. "I am sorry."

Blinking a few times, Loki moved his eyes from Thor's sincere face down to the hand locked around his wrist carefully, then back up again, swallowing and pursing his lips. "No. I'm sorry. I shouldn't have gotten angry over something so trivial…" He turned away as he said the words, staring down at the ground in a way that made it seem like he was lying as Thor took a place beside him.

Loki was not lying about his feelings. But he _was_ plotting.

Moving down to hold his younger brothers hand, Thor smiled as the two began walking together down the corridor. "You're always like this," The blond haired wonder mused. "We can't do brotherly things together anymore. Why is this?"

"I'm adopted," Loki said, but it was not sharp or bitter or cold. It was factual and perhaps even a little amused. "Doing such things with you seem a little… romantic…" Although the god winced as he said it, he felt his hand grow clammy as well as Thor held it tighter with that bellowing laugh he'd managed to suppress the night before.

Eventually, Thor gleefully shouted, "Get used to it, little brother. Get used to it." His voice echoed down the corridors as his faithful servants spread his voice with cheer and happiness to any ears that might hear it.

Instead of getting upset, Loki just smirked, his grip on Thor's hand loosening slightly. "Oh, I will. I'm already thinking up punishments for you." His thin lipped smile turned to Thor and the others smile faltered ever so slightly before he saw the happy twinkle in his brothers emerald and intelligent eyes. "You'll wish you hadn't brought me on that quest with you then."

"What will you do?" Thor asked, loudly, moving his arm from Loki's hand to sling across his brothers tender shoulders, like the bow from a bow and arrow, and wrap around the younger boys head, pulling him closer. "Turn my wine into snakes?"

Behind them, their two shadows connected. "Oh…" Loki said, his voice dripping with pleasure. His pale, tense hand move along to Thor's shoulder blades as he cupped his back- the same hand Loki had tried so hard and had exhausted himself over turning blue. "I'm thinking more of your hair."

"My hair?"

"Your hair."

* * *

Moving around her chambers, Frigga looked at her walls with a sigh. Not at her walls to be precise- they were long, towering, with fresh sunlight pouring in through a great and massive window-like sculpture above them. It made the room a golden colour and flooded every little bit of it, but mostly it made the clothes she hung on her walls sparkle and come to life. Never had they looked so bright and beautiful as they did in the sunlight.

One part of Frigga was proud looking at Loki and Thor's clothes from their childhood. She was so proud they had grown up. So happy they could take care of themselves now. That would save her an awful lot of worrying (but she still worried). Proud when she looked to her beloved sons and saw what great men they had become. Saw how powerful, how happy, how cheerful Thor was, and how much he wanted to share it. Saw how intelligence, how gleeful, how tactful Loki had become and admired the tricks he could do.

Another part was sad. Her boys had been so cute and without problems as little children. They'd always just gone to her or Odin for advice. Now that they were grown men of above twenty they would have to face Asgard much like she did. She feared for Thor, her brave little solider, who would have to rule Asgard and take care of his own heirs. She feared for Loki, her magical wizard, who would have to take care of his brother and possibly risk his life protecting him. She missed seeing her boys grow up and knew some day they would have to leave her.

Bittersweet was the word. The tears in her eyes were brimming there for many reasons.

Sighing louder this time, Frigga's hands were resting near her mouth, under her once plump lips before she lowered them. It was better than absently standing there chewing on them.

Breathing carefully and heavily, as if the sound of her breathing soothed her, Frigga focused her blue eyes down on the ground as she thought, a small smile pursing over her lips as she saw her shadow was so tiny and petty in the sunlight basking directly down from above. One day her shadow would cease to be there, she thought, and then her boys will have to look out for each other.

Although her boys would be leaving soon she couldn't find it in herself to watch the two of them wander off into unknown territory and had spared goodbyes for breakfast. Her motherly fear caused her to worry her lip between her sharp, white teeth that flashed in the sunlight. She tore her eyes away from the memories and went to move to her bed when footsteps reached her ears.

Freezing, she stopped moving and, like a beautiful dancer, moved back to stare at the large, oak door cast in its sunlight and shadows. True enough, the footsteps were like the knocking on her door as someone, just one person, came down the hallway toward her, gently, carefully and the noise comforted her nerves.

Instead of smiling, Frigga gave a frown. Only her sons and her husband were allowed in her rooms, and all three were preparing to send off Thor and Loki.

Narrowing her slim, brown eyebrows the powerful woman locked her eyes on the door, tracing the dark, metal fastenings, the gliding nails locked into the splitting wood as it groaned in an invisible wind with each approaching footstep. It was like the doors were bending away from whoever was coming down the corridor- the doors were afraid.

So, when the knocks came, Frigga rested her fist between her breasts where her beating heart was and swallowed, curious as to who could be visiting her. She dared not let a stranger or a servant in with the tears that still brimmed in her eyes or her slightly red cheeks. They came only three times, a hesitation, and repeated.

The pattern would not relent, so Frigga called, "Yes?"

Two powerful and large arms pushed open the door, clothed in metal and leather and the doors shrieked at the intrusion, but Frigga relaxed as she saw the face that was hit by the bright and inevitable sunlight. Bright, golden locks were set on fire, flaming bright and displaying a handsome and chiselled face already sun-kissed.

Blue eyes looked electric as they stared inside and Thor wasn't happy, he didn't smile, but his face was not angry and sad as he peered curiously inside of the room, and then fixed his eyes on his mother. Pulling his arms away from the doors, he allowed them to rest lazily by his side, looking up and down the walls where many garments hung carefully and loved while the doors shut behind him with a peaceful creak.

Eventually a smile pulled onto his face as he moved across the rounded room, swaggering gently, taking his time with lazy steps planted toward her, and then kneeled down toward her feet slightly, swaying from side to side even as he sat there. Comfortable. "Mother."

Smiling, Frigga moved down the steps toward him and Thor straightened as his mother approached him, her long brown hair loose and flowing behind her in curls and ringlets and she was burning in her white dress, causing Thor's smile to widen. "I already said goodbye to you at breakfast," Frigga reminded. "Why did you come here?"

"What goodbye was that?" Thor asked, but still he was not angry. More understanding some would say. "I came to say goodbye personally. It's not like I won't return…" Immediately his smiling face softened into a frown as his mother glanced down at her white, marble floor and swallowed.

Nodding to herself, Frigga swallowed a few more times then looked up, a lock of brown hair slipping over her shoulder next to her sparkling blue eyes as tears gathered on her bottom lashes like small, rounded crystals, her breathing centred through her noise, heavy from refusal to cry.

Face brimming with love as she looked up to her son, she brought one hand to his face. Her long, slender fingers tapped his cheek gently, smoothing down to his lips, before she turned her knuckles over to rub at the bristle that dusted over his chin, red lips smiling. "I know. I'm sorry. I'm just going to miss you."

Thor laughed through his nose. "Loki must get that from you…" He said and Frigga's bright eyes widened slightly in surprise, before they narrowed again with happiness and she smiled, closing her slightly opened mouth.

"I guess he must…" She breathed, hands still cupping her son's face.

Closing her eyes, she breathed a few more times and took the many seconds to collect her thoughts, spinning around her head, playing games with each other. Some thoughts were Loki and some thoughts were Thor and they tripped over each other in a simple game of tag. Opening her mouth, she took air in carefully, tilting her head down before she focused and flicked open her eyes, glancing back up at Thor.

Now, her face was in all seriousness, not quite gentle. More hard. Brown eyebrows with dashes of silver knitted together, creasing her pale forehead, her blue eyes focused on her son's almost matching pair, suddenly alive with the fire of danger. "Take care of him," She said, her voice no longer like liquid gold. It had hardened. "He's your younger brother Thor. You take care of him."

Thor's face, too, was pulled together with seriousness. His blue eyes had at once become hard, taking the time to run his mother's melody through his mind as he memorised the lyrics like a song. His lips were drew together tight and his eyebrows like hers as he matched her.

His hands moved from his side to his mother's hips. Thor's fingers liked smooth things, he liked soft things. They glided up against the pure white fabric to her shoulders, which he cupped and gently massaged, then clamped his hands around her arm gently. Like carts on a track, he moved them back along to her wrists, stroking the fabric and the skin barely beneath subtle fingers.

Entwining their fingers on his face, he said, with all honestly, "I won't, mother. I know him, too. I'll protect him, I promise you."

Thor didn't doubt for one second Loki could keep himself alive in battle. But, out of the six of them, Loki was the most likely to get hurt. He had tact for magic; he never battled, had no weapons- or hadn't brought any with him this time. Loki was good in far-away fighting, long-distance attacks. If Loki were attacked physically and it would not relent then Loki wouldn't have time to muster up a spell to guard himself or to attack. It was precaution.

They stared into each other's eyes, seeing both their loved one and themselves, before the chill in the room warned them of another presence, one that had, luckily just arrived. Frigga didn't seem to recognise the hiding person at first, and was alarmed, her eyes widening, expressing words as she stared at Thor.

When the young god chuckled however, tearing his gaze away from his mother, shutting his eyes, to look almost at the ground as he pulled away from her she relaxed. Doing a quick circle away from his mother, Thor's eyes glanced around the room. Frigga, chin held high, just waited for her son to find him, hands crossed over her abdomen and a peaceful smile on her face.

Eventually Thor's eyes caught a shimmer in the hair and his hand snatched out, grabbing onto something solid that made a noise of pain. When the figure appeared, Thor chuckled even louder at Loki's slightly annoyed but smiling face, their game complete as Thor looked down at his hand, wound again tight around the same hand Loki had held between his shoulder-blades.

The younger of the two pulled away from him, smiling smugly from the game still. "Father grew restless that you'd vanished. I came looking for you."

Rolling his eyes, Thor said, "Father is a noble tyrant…" He said it with a look of confidence, staring up at the sun as if he ruled it, but his eyes slid over to his brother even if his face didn't for a look of approval and found it in a smile that rested on Loki's hollow face.

As the two now stood side by side, eyes fixed on each other as several challenges commenced, Frigga moved quickly down the stairs and threw her arms around the two, squeezing them against her tightly. Her arms wrapped around their necks, and both of the men seemed surprised to have been grabbed by her. Loki almost lost his balance and Thor let out a noise in the back of his brother as his cheek was pressed against his mother's which was pressed against his brothers.

Squeezing them tightly against her smaller body, Frigga said, carefully, her face, hidden from the two, "I love you boys so much…" On the other side, her eyes moved from Thor to Loki, those tears again that only a mother could experience brimming in the corners of her eyes, making her face redden to a maiden blush.

On her left side, Thor smiled gently, lazily, and allowed his head to rest against hers, moving his hand along to her lower back as if to keep her there. Blue eyes slid peacefully over to her, enjoying the embrace. Loki, on the other hand, glanced around the room, at the clothes, and then smiled when he smelt salt. Wrapping her fingers in her hair, he buried his nose in it, breathing against her, his eyes heavy.

The hug lasted a few more seconds before Frigga pulled away and straightened herself, bringing her open hands, like lily's, to her rosy cheeks, pressing the cool, white hands there as if it would make any difference. As if it would scare away the blush.

Standing tall and strong, Thor gleamed back at her with an open laugh. Loki, on the other hand, stood slightly swayed to one side, his face looking one way while his emerald eyes focused on her from the corner of his eye with a sheepish and smiling expression.

"Goodbye mother…"

Frigga was left alone in her bedroom again, a fresh breeze coming in from the slowly shutting door. Through the gap, she watched Thor and Loki walk side by side, opposites yet one in the same, their footsteps causing the hallway, once again, to bend.

* * *

Although he was supposed to be controlling a horse, it didn't change the fact Loki didn't care. What he wanted, he tended to get. And, currently, he wanted to watch his home vanish behind him into the distance. It's golden towers sparkling within the amber sunset. Magical.

"Loki!" The cheerful voice called back to him was like having a screwdriver lodged into the side of your temple and, tearing his eyes away from his home, Loki drew his lips over his teeth as he rolled his eyes. "Stop being so distracted, you're falling behind." This voice was Thor's voice.

And Loki hated it whenever it was too happy.

The white horse below him didn't seem too unhappy to be lagging and, looking up, the three idiots and Sif didn't seem to mind that much either, so Loki wasn't extremely bothered as they turned around the side of a cliff. In a few more seconds, he wouldn't be able to see Asgard anymore, so he decided he'd catch up in that time.

To make this clear, his green eyes found Thor's, locked onto them, and glared. A very hard, very serious 'don't mess with me' glare. The only glare Thor ever took from him seriously. It was one that made everything under his eyes darken and appear like the thunder Thor was supposed to have control of, then he turned his head away back to the castle.

They said it was a bad thing to turn your back on a king. But, Loki only turned his head on his oaf of his brother and let his long, black hair swish in the cunning, golden light as he continued to stare back at his home.

Distracted? Him? Never.

Thor would also pay for that insult later.

It was true, though. Perhaps that's why it grated on Loki with much annoyance. Even now, staring back at his home, he kept getting caught by the grey rocks of the cliff around him and glancing to and fro from that and the castle. The shiny, wet rocks that treaded were nothing special, but Loki found interest on things resting on the rock that caught his eye.

Still, he managed to relish in the powerful shadow of his home. His protection. His kingdom. His people. At least, half his. Half his and half Thor's.

Once he'd rounded the corner and pine-like trees had become pollution to his sight, Loki decided that looking at his home would make him miss it even less and began focusing in front of him where, he saw, the idiots three, Sif and his oaf of a brother had waited for him, much to his own agitation and embarrassment.

Yes. Thor would pay for that too.

Sneaking one last glance back at his home, Loki's face was hit by the milky morning light while the rest of his body and his white stallion plunged into the shadows giving off by the large forest that loomed above them. Glowing green eyes, like the sea, or gems, twisted to face them, finally subduing to the shadowed fingers of the forest where the others waited for him.

Moving toward them, the other five watched him as he approached and he cursed when he realised that the woods was too built for their horses. "Do we leave them here and walk?" His question came as he neatly trotted his horse along to the side of his brother, snapping a few twigs and scuffing dirt under grey, sharp hooves as he went, settling close to Thor.

Fandral, ever the smart one (Loki was good with sarcasm) said, "Why don't you just smash down the tree's, Thor?" This earned the flirtatious blond idiot cheers from the red-headed ball.

"Yes," Loki said with a dry voice, his thin, hungry lips moving as if tightly pulled by strings. "Make lots of noise and destroy potential monsters homes. Why didn't I think of that?" His voice, his look and his words immediately stopped all cheering and Fandral glared back at Loki while Loki was easily winning against the buffoon.

Loki's glare broke from Fandral when a hand appeared before his chest. The arm was pushed against his chest too, and the leather met leather in a slithering whisper as Thor held Loki's body back with his arm, but this was a signal of just breaking contact. "Enough."

Unlike Loki, Fandral bowed his blond head. The green God of Mischief didn't fear his brother and just set his pale face in stone.

Nodding toward the forest, Thor's mouth was open, his tongue slicking across the inside of his lips in some form of concentration, revealing his pink mouth and sharp teeth. Blue eyes scanned the forest, brimming with adventure as he lowered his arm from his brothers chest, eyes narrowed slightly but face alive with excitement. "Loki?" He whispered, as if someone was listening.

Face head low, staring down his horses mane, Loki's eyes widened, his eyebrows shooting up. His forehead creased as he licked the inside of his lips also, but with them firmly clamped shut, bobbing to a beat nobody could hear. "Mmm?"

"What do you sense?" His hand was now by the side of his horse, rubbing it subconsciously completely focused on the forest.

Blinking, Loki narrowed his eyes, looking at the six foot between them and the actual start of the trees with a look of disapproval, as if he couldn't believe Thor. "Nothing from here," He said, a 'duh' note in his voice. Since Thor seemed pretty mesmerised by just wondering about what dangers lurked in there, what things he could kill, Loki unbuckled himself from his horse.

This brought Thor back from his senses at the rattling from the horse and the sound of moving leather. "What are you doing?" He asked, frowning toward his brother, but already Loki had slung his other leg over to the right side of the horse and slipped off, only his hand was left on the top from where he'd graced his fall and still held to the saddle.

Patting the horse once there, Loki drew his hand away and slipped under the horses long neck, sauntering toward the woods, turning when he knew what his brother was thinking. Raising three fingers, he indicated his words. "Just stay here."

"You shouldn't go in there alone," Thor said, heading his mother's words from before.

He only got a laugh from Loki's turned back and the smaller god didn't even turn to look at him.

Once he was up to the tree line Loki's cockiness began to disperse slightly as he crouched forward, pushing a branch out of his way to look further in. All he saw were leaves on the floor barely prickled with light and darkness further in, swallowing as he began to get a bad feeling about the woods. But, it was barely sitting in his stomach.

Loki could feel something bad, but it wasn't strong enough. That probably meant he could find out what it was if he went a little further in.

Eyes sparkling within the darkness, Loki also lifted the branch over his head with his pale hand, trying not the let it shake as the movement of the mere object brought more black poison pouring into his being. Shuddering, Loki turned, craning his neck so bad his bone was revealed as he tensed. But, swallowing, the young god plunged himself back inside of the woods, over-stepping some loose stones to tread into the dark shadows.

Thor's heart rose into his throat as Loki began disappearing into the darkness. Tight teeth, Thor said, "Loki."

The god's shadow hesitated and, turning, Thor caught the gleam of Loki's armour. "I'll be fine," Loki assured. "Just stay there. I'm only going a bit deeper…" The voice was slightly tight, as if something was lodging itself between Loki's lungs.

"I can tell when you're lying," Thor said, with a slight fond note in his voice.

Again, all he was repaid with was a laugh.

Now, Loki's armour didn't even gleam anymore. Thor's eyes watched the forest and he grew tense, refusing to breath until Loki reappeared again. He knew it was really foolish for him to be worrying about Loki. Loki was twenty-three now. He wasn't a child. A grown man. But it made Thor feel better whenever he saw the worry on Loki's face if he left for a mission or if he was hurt. So, sitting here worrying seemed to make up for his lack of not being there.

"Thor…" His name was whispered low and with as much worry as he seemed to have and, stiffly, he turned his head toward where the voice was coming, watching Sif bring her pitch black mare toward him slightly, the horse trying not to fall on loose rocks. "He's been in there for a few minutes now."

Now, Thor was an idiot. He knew Sif and Loki didn't get along. That didn't mean Sif wanted Loki to die.

Eyes fixed on the woods, angry and adventure less with the knowledge it had just _eaten _his little brother. The clink of his belt indicated he'd unbuckled himself from his horse; not that is wasn't rare for Thor to hardly ever buckle himself to his horse.

Safety was Loki's thing.

Sliding from the horse, the saddle make a rough noise against the horse as Thor threw himself off, balancing Mjolnir in his hand. When Sif and the others tried to follow, he held out his hand again and they stopped, his eyes fixed on the woods. "I'll call for you if I need you…" He said, turning to look at them over his shoulder and received a few unhappy nods.

Licking his lips as they had suddenly became dry; Thor held his hammer tight in his hand next to him, its weight a comfort to Thor. Creeping forward toward the black-barked trees, each footsteps was hesitant and careful, as if a mine was hidden beneath their very feet. Approaching with caution was wise, and Thor bit back the need to call out Loki's name a few times.

Although it ached in the back of his throat, like holding back the need to cry, and rung in his ears, Thor pressed forward silently.

His rough hand moved toward the same branch Loki had touched before vanishing; lifting it above his head as his eyes stared blindly into the endless black. Blinking, Thor sucked his lips into his mouth with worry and concern for the sudden lack of his brother and breathed heavily a few times as he himself prepared to press forward into the eating woods.

Then a pale, white hand loomed out of the darkness, fingers stretched and shaking, and latched onto his shoulder, tight and yet weakly.

Men didn't scream. Thor didn't scream. He shouted. High-pitched.

This time rustling, clattering and many other noises sounded behind them and suddenly Thor found Sif was on the back of her horse, bow and arrow raised toward where Thor was standing, her grey eyes burning with full seriousness, her lips thin and her intentions dark. Hogun was a little faster and had drawn both of his knifes already, swooped under one of Thor's arms to jab his knife painfully between two of the ribs of whatever had attacked Thor. Fandral had fallen flat off of his horse onto his face and Volstagg was flapping around in a panic on his. Thor's hammer was raised ready to smash into the side of a face when the attacked squirmed against the knife lodged in his ribs.

"For the love of Asgard, Hogun, _get off_!" The voice was not impressed at all. In fact, the voice sounded really, really quite angry.

Everyone else only lowered their weapons when Thor drew his powerful arm back from his attack, manage to stop it in time to prevent the 'attacker' from losing his head and Hogun, surprised by the sudden sharp words directed in his direction, drew back his knifes and slid then back in Odin-knows-where.

Sif refused to lower from her horse. Fandral spluttered and picked himself off of the floor, dusting himself down, and Volstagg managed to regain his balance.

Still latched tightly onto his brother, Loki appeared from the darkness, a few sighs from caught breath releasing themselves from throats when they saw the only thing that had startled Thor had been the young prince he had been looking for. Albeit disappointed, Sif put away her weapons and lowered herself back onto her horse, arms crossed and looking rather miffed. Hogun retreated for his own safety.

Rubbing his ribcage, Loki's twitching green eyes watched Hogun retreated and he hissed, with all threatening intention, "Do that again and I will kill you."

Thor, ever the one to defend his friend, slapped a heavy hand onto his brothers breakable and sickly shoulder hard, causing the younger god to double over after the brotherly slap. "Can you blame him? You frightened us brother…"

Then the concerned eyes traced over Loki. Past his mask of anger, Thor saw a flicker of fear, a yellow line in his brothers jade pools, the dark and long eyelashes blinking several times to be rid of it. Although Hogun had jabbed him in the ribs, Loki's hands rested around his windpipe and his chest, as if cradling his air and blood against him, wincing slightly. Judging by the sweat glistening on his brothers body whatever he had managed to feel had been strong.

"Loki?"

Wide eyes were caught off guard and they flickered to Thor, revealing everything, before they closed and narrowed. "We should avoid the woods if we can…" Loki said, straightening. But, as he did, he tensed and froze, drawing in breath through his teeth and his hands moved to his ribs once more, applying pressure. "It's giving me a really bad feeling."

"Like?" Sif called from away on her horse, her annoyed grey eyes bearing down at Loki as he took a minute to try and catch his breath, his pale face pulled tight, for once showing true emotion.

Dark eyebrows lifted up as Loki licked his lips, looking at Sif with a wide eyed and innocent gaze. He didn't have the energy to verbally to spar with her. "When in there I could barely breathe. Whatever danger is in there, it reeks, and it's strong and it's waiting. It completely suppressed me…"

Loki didn't seem too happy about that fact.

Tilting a lighter eyebrow, Thor turned toward his brother, looking down at him while Loki looked up. Thor's face was a questioning one, Loki's was the same face he would use when he really smiled. Wide eyed. Innocent. "Suppressed?" Now it looked angry.

Glaring up at his brother slightly, but both heads still locked in the same position, noses almost touching. The dark eyebrows pulled over unpleased eyes. "I couldn't move until you came. Powerful things have powerful auras. That's why I don't really pay attention to yours, or anyone in Asgard, I wouldn't be able to breathe if I did."

The compliment came so casual Thor knew Loki hadn't seen it that way. So he smiled and decided to keep the compliment to himself before Loki realised and snatched it back with a few sharp insults.

"Why were you scared of me?" He asked, the pain in his ribs beginning to irritate him.

Stupidly, Thor opened his mouth before thinking (as always) and easily blurted through his completely truthful face, "I thought the woods had _eaten _you, brother."

Although it was a foolish thing to admit, and when Thor's brain finally kicked in the god gave a flush and tried to replace his words, his mouth opening a few times before he began to stroke it with his finger, biting his tongue gently. Loki's chuckling didn't make things any better, but Loki's smile was strange, it drew back over his teeth and revealed them all, and yet it was thin, like a slit in someone's voice.

"I'm fine," Loki said, his voice slightly rough as he regained his energy. Then he angered. "Or I was until Hogun stabbed me…" Again the furious green eyes found the warrior, a thousand curses and threats exchanged in just one, simple gaze. Such was the power of Loki.

"Come here." Loki had no choice.

One of Thor's hands went behind Loki to his lower back, much like he had held his mother, and pulled the younger and irritable god toward him, grabbing him again around the shoulders when Loki tried to resist and scramble away. The struggling/stumbling ceased when Loki gave a sigh and just let Thor tug him around.

He'd, after all, pay for that later too.

Although Loki's body was littered with different forms of armour Hogun had, luckily, stabbed a rather reachable place and Thor had to only pull the shirt beneath out of Loki's trousers and then ball it up a little higher to reach. Gritting his teeth, Loki rolled his eyes and angrily looked anywhere but at his brother, his lips twitching with annoyance.

He was even less impressed when Thor drew a green-brown shirt out of his pants and hitched it up under his chest. Loki had to grip onto Thor's hand to hold his balance as he was almost lifted off of the ground.

It he wasn't so skinny and lean he'd weight more and it'd be harder for Thor to do that…

Fingers breezed down Loki's exposed ribs, causing the younger god to shiver and twitch against the feelings. Breathing as if a chill have rushed down his spine. Loki, with for some reason pink cheeks, looked away from his brother, embarrassed, toward the rock which was hiding Asgard to him. The fingers continued to move over rib.

Concern. It was something Thor rarely felt. But, now, seeing Loki's ribs so shaped, so proclaimed… Thor could count, see, touch every single one of Loki's obvious ribs and could see the younger boys lungs working against them.

Ignoring his concern for his brother's diet for now, Thor instead gazed the stainless white for any other intruding colour. He started at the top, bending down to get a better look. By moving down from above Loki, he lifted his arm above his head sleekly while sweeping down, his hand smoothing from the top of his rips to rest on his brother's popped head and the god again shivered. Loki _hated _being touched. Thor knew this.

Starting from top to bottom, it would've taken longer for Thor to find the cut if something warm hadn't dripped onto his finger. It wasn't like water, it was much more slick and hard to work, grainy. Swallowing, the god locked down in confusion and brought the hand away from his brother's hard breathing stomach to turn over his thumb, a long, red line of blood gliding from nail down his knuckles and still moving.

When his eyes flickered down, they locked on it, but Thor didn't wince. It wasn't too bad- but Thor could easily see why it was irritating.

Thor didn't really have an idea of pain for others, so, just because he was curious, he brought his fingers to the wound. It sat between two ribs, about an inch in length horizontally and a thin slit, but it kept bleeding and although small, it was deep. Thor could tell by the way Loki's right lung shimmered below his skin instead of pumping like his other one.

Fingers tracing the wound, he heard Loki make a noise and said, "You have a deep wound here."

"Don't poke then!" Loki squawked, flapping like a fish in an attempt to stop himself from battering Thor to death. He then brought one hand to the long, pale bridge of his noise and gave a hard squeeze, pulling his eyebrows tightly together. "Where?"

A pale hand was extended down to Thor, trying to search for his brother while he kept his eyes closed.

The throbbing had returned at the back of his eyeballs.

White fingers flinched gently when they met with warm, blunt ones, Thor's hand reaching up to guide Loki's. The elder brother just pressed his fingers to the back of Loki's hand carefully, pushing down against the boys exposed chest and bringing it down across his bumpy ribs to where the culprit of discomfort was resting, his red mouth smiling, until Loki's long, narrow tips reached it with a hiss.

"Here." The word wasn't needed, but Thor just wanted to say it.

Dryly, Loki said, "Yeah. Thanks…" Looking down toward the wound, Loki flushed. "You can stand up now…" Thor blinked, his face becoming plain as his upper lip drooped but he did what he was told, Loki slapping Thor's arm away from where it fisted up his shirt to hold it himself. "Look, watch."

Moving the tips of his fingers directly above the wound, Loki closed his eyes. From one side to the other, he pulled his fingers across the open wound. Like a zip, once his fingers moved on, the wound completely vanished behind it. Pulling away his fingers, the ribs were spotless again aside from a few drops of blood, but Loki let his shirt drop from his fingers, slipping through them with a loud rustle.

As soon as the dark clothe dropped, he refused to look up at Thor once. Tired from his suppressing from the woods, Loki lazily began to tuck his shirt back in and straighten his armour in various places where Thor's yanking had made it slip.

Eventually, Loki grew bored of Thor fixing his eyes on him. "What are you staring at?"

"But you told me to-" Thor began, a look of amazement still plastered on his face.

Narrowing his eyes, Loki said, "But I'm finished now." At this the elder god blinked and looked away, grinning to himself and shaking his head slightly at his younger brother, who continued to just stare back at him with 'well?' eyes, completely unimpressed as his brother grinned and took a few steps away from him until the look lightened slightly.

Sif's voice broke the air, stopping Thor and Loki from staring at each other. "So, sorcerer?" Turning to her, Thor just narrowed his eyes to see past the sun rising behind her, and Loki blinked but didn't really look at her, just making a 'hmm?' sound as he swung his arms casually, stepping toward his own horse a little. "Can we get our horses through there?"

Hissing through his teeth, Loki spun carefully and looked the woodland area up and down, rubbing his upper lip with his index finger as he thought about it, humming through his nose as he assessed the trees. "Not without making a path, no."

"Is that sarcasm?" Sif asked.

Loki's upper lip twitched as his finger continued to rub it before he dropped his finger. Moving forward, his heels crushed the gravel, stomping it below his might as he laughed, Sif's grey eyes glaring him down from her horse as he walked toward her. Still smirking and chuckling to himself, Loki sauntered over to her, and then looked up at her. "Obviously you're not very good at it, are you?"

When Sif leaned forward, eyes flashing in warning of another fight Thor moved forward and grabbed Loki by the upper arm, twisting his fingers around the silk and the metal and the leather to drag his brother back beside him with a hard jog. "Enough." He glanced toward Loki. "What do you suggest?" He inquired.

Dark eyebrows raised and the brother turned from looking at his brother to back toward the woods. "Um… can we go around it?" The solid, hard look in Thor's eyes told him to be more practical. "The horses can't get through, so we'd have to walk through and leave them here. Walking through leaves us less protection and, frankly, I don't like it in there."

Following Loki's jerked thumb, Thor took another, good look at Loki and tingled from a sense of danger, but also of adventure. He brought his large hand clamping down on Loki's shoulder again. "I'll protect you brother."

Loki carefully dragged his dark eyes down toward where Thor's hand was resting on his shoulder, lifted his eyebrows even higher and pressed his tongue in his cheek, causing Thor to move his hand from his shoulder. "Fine," Loki said. "But we'll have to go in without the horses."

"Fine," Thor said, moving so that he loomed above Loki in another challenge.

Loki refused to take the bait.

He was tired. He'd been practically crushed so bad he couldn't move, let alone breath, and feared he may have passed out if Thor's intrusion hadn't of distracted him in time.

For a Frost Giant, he was pretty pathetic. He couldn't change the colour of the skin, let alone call on the ice for aid, so this failing sorcery was the only defence he had for himself in the deep, damp woods. If he messed up so much as once and received the dangerous presence again and then was attacked Thor could kiss his so-called protection goodbye.

One hit. Splat. On a tree. Dead.

Patting his brothers shoulder back, Loki quickly whispered, "Don't expect me to piece you back together…" As he turned away and began hiking back up the small drop toward where his horse was patiently waiting for him. He felt Thor's eyes on his back so turned around and asked, "What do we do with the horses?" He slapped one hand against his stallion's neck in a petting way.

Having watched his brother climb the hill, to see Loki just turn on his heel was a bit of a surprise and Thor thought about the question asked. "We must prevail," He said. "We'll have to go in without them…"

He could tell not everyone in the group was happy. Especially Sif as it was her personal and favourite mare.

Again, her steel eyes focused on Thor with a look of 'you dare' burning in her orbs so powerful Thor could only blink back at her. Like Medusa.

With his tongue pressed to the inside of his cheek, Loki's fingers subconsciously began to hug on the reign of his horse under its chin as his gaze flickered between the two of them, his eyebrows again high with suggestion. "Or I could have duplicates take them back…but that would require my upmost concentration."

"Such as?" Thor turned happily from Sif's piercing gaze to his brother, the gravel churning beneath his feet with cries of pain as they were crushed.

Flicking his head back with a groan, no doubt cursing his brothers stupidity, Loki said, "One of you will have to carry me." More blank stares greeted the God of Mischief. "Normally I can only make duplicates if I'm with them. If I send them off one way while I'm going the other way I'll need to look through their eyes, leaving my own body vulnerable."

Fandral, for once, seemed to pick up. "Basically your body becomes a shell while you travel with the duplicates?"

"Exactly," Loki said, flickering his teeth in a smile. "And, unlike the duplicates my body can be harmed. If I'm killed I can't live on in the duplicate." While Loki theory seemed to sink in Fandral was looking rather cuffed with himself. That was, until, Loki glared at him when he began doing a small, merry dance of pride.

Volstagg, who finally managed to get off of his horse, slipped down onto the dry ground with a comfortable thud. The other side of the realm and earthquake was beginning, but for now the pebbles jumped into the air and the horse finally straightened to its natural size, flaring its nostrils at Volstagg. "C'mon, I'll carry you," the ginger bearded man offered.

Loki blinked. "It's rare for you to be sober, yet alone reliable…" That was a no.

To be frightfully honest the trickster would rather tell the others to go on ahead, he'd catch up with them in half-an-hour, hide himself in a stone and do it alone then be _carried _by _Volstagg, _stinky, alcoholic, fat Volstagg.

"You should've just asked me in the first place, brother, instead of denying anyone else," Thor said with a cheeky smile, basking in yet another rare and unmentioned compliment from his brother as he started his own way up the bank to grab Loki's wrists and sling him over his shoulder.

Seeing this, Loki ignored the vein twitching in his forehead and pushed away a little, reasoning voice that killing Thor wouldn't really be all that bad to back off. "I need to cast the spell first," Loki said slowly through his teeth. "I'd be awkward casting it while having a piggyback from a mindless idiot."

Fandral, still proud of his wit, something he rarely had to be proud of, said, "If we get into a fight, can Thor just throw you onto the ground?"

Blinking, Loki decided it was better, rather than to argue with Fandral, to show him up instead and stopped midway to moving his arms for his spell. With a passive face, he said, "So long as any wounds I obtained I could heal that would be just fine." In other words, Thor wouldn't do anything to cause any harm to him you useless flirt.

At first nothing happened to Fandral, then his mouth sucked in and his pride dispersed and his sluggishly shuffled away from Loki as his face began to change from white to purple. Behind him, Loki laughed smugly, flashing his teeth again, before he continued on with casting his spell, jogging two hands quickly to the side as six other Loki's appeared next to him.

Since they were near, Loki just had to look at them and they'd gotten onto their horses and started off, but once they were out of sight it was obvious Loki's concentration began lacking.

Eyelids heavy, the young god stared back at the creamy lit sky before blinking a few times. He continued to try and focus on the whereabouts of his clones, but the more he did the more his eyebrows drew together in a look that reminded Thor of when Loki was in pain or suffering from a megrim no thanks to Thor's instant chatter.

This time, Loki allowed Thor to latch onto his wrists and easily sling the young god around.

Not that it was too easy, of course. Thor just hoisted Loki into the air by a sharp, but forceful tug of the wrists upwards. Loki had to quickly pay enough attention to both his clones and himself in order to not fly off the other side of Thor into one of those spikey and hard looking trees.

Instead, he approached Thor's back like it was a horse and when thrown on the air just slid one leg over the elder God's back, down to his hip, and allowed the weight of the throw to bring the rest of him onto the red cape, sitting comfortably, his other leg moving down the other side of Thor as he sat there, until Thor straightened and he almost fell off, throwing his arms quickly around Thor's neck.

The god quickly wondered whether he should choke Thor for his insolence but instead decided to move himself so that he wasn't hanging from his brothers back like a fur coat first, shuffling around until he felt quite comfortable on his brothers back.

Then he tightened his arms around Thor's throat, locking his long and pale, pointy elbows tightly while his fingers rubbed at Thor's hair, wondering if he should grab it or not.

Loki didn't feel safe until Thor's arms had rested under his knees. When that happened, he found it easier to lean his head onto his brother's shoulder and slip his eyes closed, allowing his current body to fall into a deep and heavy sleep.

Like a dream, hazy eyes awoke on the back of his horse behind the others again. It wasn't like he was there, but he could sense what was going on around him in his spellbound slumber.

* * *

"Isn't he heavy?" Red lips asked after the six of them had been in the woods for twenty odd minutes now, hiking around the black abyss carefully watching from side to side in the case that anyone should attack them from the looming shadows. Sif's job was to watch Thor's back and Loki of course.

Shaking his head, the tussled, blond locks looking brown in the lack of light, Thor glanced over his shoulder toward Sif. He saw nothing but her armour glimmering in the few strands of sunlight that could wisp their way into the damned woods and turned away, seeing as it was pointless to look at her.

He admitted, "I'm more surprised Mjolnir hasn't forced him off yet."

Since Loki had lost consciousness (or was sleeping as Thor preferred to think) his hands draped uselessly down the front of Thor. The only thing that was keeping Loki on was his cat-like balance. Even in his sleep, while Thor was walking he felt Loki's body adjust to his every movement.

When one of Thor's shoulders bent up, Loki would wedge himself so that he didn't slip off the other side. When Thor went down a hill, Loki would stiffen ever so slightly to prevent himself from being thrown forward. And, when climbing up a hill Loki's knees would tighten painfully against Thor's side to prevent him slipping off.

Most of these ways caused Thor discomfort. If Loki was conscious of his actions, he'd of been proud.

After all, Loki wasn't holding on with his hands. Long, skilled white fingers just slung down slender arms directly in front of Thor, never once toughing the god's stomach, just swinging, suspended in the air, and his legs were only held by Thor's hands locked tightly under Loki's knees. It was probably painfully tight- Thor knew his hands had lost feeling a long time ago.

His tendons ached from constantly being tight around his brothers rounded knee-caps, holding him in place so that he wasn't thrown off. This constant, painful position had blissfully allowed Thor to gain pins and needles ten minutes ago, and now they were completely numb.

Thor was just glad that, generally unlike himself, Loki didn't drool in his sleep. Or neither snore nor talk. That would've been too annoying.

But, for the sake that nobody else could lift Thor's hammer so therefore wouldn't be able to move if he put it in their pockets or bags, Thor had come to the conclusion he would have to keep his hammer to himself. But he could hardly hold the thick handle between his teeth or knees. And his hands were rather preoccupied with hoisting his brother for a piggyback ride.

In fact, the whole thing felt childish.

Yet, again, Loki would've been proud at how smart Thor had been. For some reason, when slipped between Thor's back and Loki's collarbone, the hammer didn't move. And, probably because of the angle they were tilted at, didn't force Loki off onto the ground either. It was wedge and one of Loki's cheeks rested against the cold surface of a hammer.

Unfortunately that probably meant Loki would wake with a cold cheek with a square imprint in it and beat Thor until he was black and blue but at least Thor could keep a steady pace while knowing his brother was perfectly safe.

It made him feel better. Made him know he was abiding to the promise he had made his mother.

Mjolnir was like a little guard dog.

Walking behind him, Sif felt a little tug on her lips. It quickly retreated as the shadows ate it. "The trickster seems to have found himself to be useful…" It was not lightly said. It was a 'so Loki has some worth to us after all' sort of comment.

Thor only gave a laugh, flashing all but his two front teeth. "Why do I feel, Sif, that you and Loki are doomed to hate each other?"

"I don't hate him. I dislike him…" Sif sighed, puffing some long black hair out of her eyes. "I'll never forgive him for all those pranks he played on me, not until I get revenge…" She said it lightly and brushed it off, meaning hardly anything by it. "Besides, he's still a prince and we'll still fight together. I remember all of that." From somewhere to the left, Fandral snickered in agreement.

Continuing forward, knowing Hogun was looming somewhere in front of him but out of sight, the god narrowed his sapphire eyes to try and see before him as he hoisted Loki further up onto his back when his brother began to slip. "He'll join us on many quests. We're lonely alone."

It was Thor's way of telling them Loki would be there because he wanted it and nobody else had a sigh. What brother wants brother gets.

"Do you suppose they've made it back to the castle yet?" Thor called, tactfully changing the subject.

He was a little on edge when Hogun answered before him. "Loki should awaken soon. I am sure of it."

Laughing, Thor again had to hoist Loki back up onto his shoulders to stop him from falling down, making a noise as he went, Loki beginning to get heavier the deeper they went. "I wish to see my father's face when six Loki's arrive without us." An amused chuckle breezed past invisible lips in the dark of the woods like a caught breath, causing his friends to stiffen until they heard he was still moving on.

Surprisingly, Volstagg answered this time, with a much louder laugh that shook the forest. Somewhere, another earthquake started. "Loki is no fool. He would have told Heimdall and Heimdall, he would have warned Odin."

"I'd hardly be surprised," Fandral started from another unseen corner, throwing Thor off before he located the diamond/kite his friends were centred around him in again and relaxed, feeling less delusioned. "I'll bet King Odin already suspected we'd bring the horses back…" He began, then started on mumbling to himself until Thor was sure Sif was going to throw something in the random, dark direction and probably get a pretty good hit.

Instead, she said, "That's a bet you'd probably lose."

And then there was silence (minus the low grumbling coming from Fandral's corner).

With Hogun leading the way at the front, any direct attackers wouldn't even have time to draw their last breath before they felt, blood soaking the dirtied earth beneath their feet that twigs and leaves screamed from once trod on. Volstagg, on Thor's left, would certainly be able to deflect anything coming from that way. As for Fandral, although he was a flirt he was noble and would defend Thor with his life before he let anything slip through to the god. And Sif was Sif. Nothing ever got past her. Again, it made Thor feel safer with Loki exposing himself so vulnerably for them.

The silence didn't last for too long and Thor almost jumped when something was whispered literally next to his ear. He relaxed when he recognised both the voice and his name, and realised the woods was playing tricks on him when he'd thought Sif had been actually breathing down his ear.

In the dark, Thor felt rather useless. He fought with sight. Loki would be the smart one who could use sound.

This weakness was playing tricks on him.

Due to the lack of sight, it make Sif feel closer than she actually was because he had Loki on his back, and therefore couldn't feel past the heavy weight to sense her behind him. It also echoed and her voice reflected off of trees in many directions that confused Thor's hearing. But, it was easy to cope with.

As for the breath at his ear, that was easy. It was Loki's breathing.

"Thor," She said, repeating his name carefully so that nobody else could hear, but she knew she'd gotten his attention when he grunted back at her, shifting Loki on his back to get rid of a nasty crick in his neck. "I think you should be worried about Loki."

Quickly checking that the heavy sack on his back was breathing, which it was, Thor relaxed after her words had made him tense.

For as long as Thor could remember, those words had caused trouble.

Whenever his mother said them to him, it often meant Loki was emotionally upset and had come to her to talk about emotional things. Of course, Frigga would spill that to Thor's ears only, long before she gave them to her dear husband Odin, and would let Thor go off to find Loki and fix whatever was wrong with his baby brother.

Whenever his father said them to him, it often meant that something was wrong with Loki physically. Like Loki had gotten hurt in a current battle or quest and his father wanted him to go and look after him.

When it came from the Warriors Three and Sif, however, those words had a much deeper meaning.

Swallowing, Thor called back as quietly as he could, "What do you mean?" Though, it was pointless. It was obvious the Warriors Three could hear the two of them.

Perhaps even the sleeping Loki was cursing Sif from Hel.

A sound behind him signalled Sif was taking a large breath. Whether it was because whatever she was thinking of was really bothering her or whether it was because everyone was, yet again, rolling their eyes at Thor the Thunderer couldn't tell, but it didn't make him any less worried. "I saw him yesterday. He was exhausted. He's putting his all into his work."

Now, Thor was confused and almost stopped walking to seriously discuss this with Sif before he remembered he had to keep moving in fear of worrying everyone else and having them break into complete, blind chaos.

So, still walking, while completely mentally gobsmacked, Thor said, "That's a good thing. If Loki focuses on his work he will become more powerful and able to protect himself, why do you speak so negatively?"

There was hesitance.

This told Thor he wasn't going to like what Sif said next. This logically turned on a small, generally untouched switch in Thor's brain that was telling him he was going to have to become defensive over Loki and go against Sif.

That was a switch Thor had never had to dare to flick before.

"He's training to be able to turn into a Frost Giant. He's wasting his energy trying to turn his skin blue. Exhausting himself trying to bend ice under his will…" Another hesitation, and so far none of this had bothered Thor. "He's allowing himself to become our enemy."

The next action probably surprised everyone.

Whirling around, Thor spat in Sif's direction, "_You take that back_!" His voice boomed around the forest as it kneeled to his powerful voice, leaves trembling in fear and branches swaying in means of escape while Sif carefully closed her mouth and remained still- her armour showed it. Everyone had frozen and not broken their sequence.

Licking his lips, Thor didn't know whether he should keep on moving. But there was one thing he wanted to make very clear.

"Loki is my brother. He is my friend. He is my partner. Frost Giant he is too, but enemy he is not." This voice was firm. It held no arrogance. Only worthiness and nobility. "No matter what true colour Loki's skin may be, no matter how cold he is just because he is one of them does not mean he thinks or acts like them and I never want to hear you speak of him like he is one of them again…" Still, Thor did not move. "He was brought and raised here. He belongs here. He acts like an Estir, but he has all right to want to know more about what he truly is."

For a second, nobody dared go against Thor's words. Nobody but Sif. "I know that, Thor, but what if the Frost Giant within him has different intentions-"

"We will speak no more of this!" Thor roared. "Loki is Loki. Estir Loki is your comrade who has just done you a favour. Frost Giant Loki is the prince who has left himself vulnerable for you because you wanted not to leave your mare outside the forest."

Now nobody dared go against Thor's words.

Instead, Hogun carefully said from up front, "We must move or else be attacked."

The pattern of treading boots faded back into its usual movement as if the pause had never happened. But Sif walked with a lack of confidence behind him and Volstagg and Fandral were stiff by Thor's side, making sure not to upset their prince any further.

No-one else wanted to suffer the bruising wrath of Thor. Especially when it was about his brother.

This new found awkward silence was actually comfortable for the next ten or so minutes as they continued pressing forth into the dark, unknown woodland. As time ticked by Thor grew more and more worried for how Loki was coping and grew more and more concerned as to why his younger brother wasn't waking.

He was also growing more and more guilty for the words he had said so cold and cruelly to Sif as she did have a point. But they could speak of that later when Loki was not on his back and when the Warriors Three weren't collecting their gossip.

Thor had never really disappointed his friends before; but it didn't feel like that.

It felt like Thor had, instead of treating them like friends, treated them like servants. Acted like a king and forced them to accept his opinion without any argument from Sif. It hadn't of been fair. It was making Thor feel rough.

Being so deep in his thoughts Thor immediately halted when Loki stirred on his back.

Everyone else stopped too as Loki squirmed and opened his eyes. "Where in Odin's name are we?" Loki asked, obviously a bit delusional from suddenly coming from the heart of Asgard to the pitch- black world of the canopy of the forest and sat up on Thor's back, then made a yelling noise. "Thor! Get your damn hammer off of me!"

Not one person dare speak up after their conversation of the young, now awake prince as Thor laughed, reaching around for the hammer. "Where is it, brother?" His hand was searching blindly and Loki hissed when Thor grabbed onto his thigh by mistake.

"Here." The word was not needed when Loki grabbed Thor's hand and slammed it down on his hammer, but it felt like putting it there anyway. "What's wrong with my cheek?"

A guilty, "I don't know," slipped from Thor's mouth and Loki documented yet another prank in line for Thor.

Moving around on Thor's back, the other was about to crouch down to let Loki of when a strange noise reached their ears, causing everyone to draw their weapons immediately apart from Loki, who just sat alert on his brothers back, neck craned, mouth open and head looking from side to side for the cause of the flapping noise they could still here, his hands on Thor's shoulders as he sat in a better looking position.

Whispering low, Thor said, "You won't be able to see anything, brother. It's too dark."

The frown was evident in Loki's voice. "What do you mean you can't see? It's a bit dark but I can see just fine now…" As the flapping grew louder, Loki's voice trailed off, but not in a good way.

It trailed off in a way that let everyone know Loki had been distracted by something bad.

"Thor!" A scream sounded into the air like the caw of a bird, except a lot more bloodthirsty. "Idiot! How can you not see that?" The harsh words came quick and strong over the endless screaming whatever creature, with wings, was floating above him.

Suddenly, the forest was illuminated.

Blinking from the harsh jagged lines of light, Thor craned his neck to see Loki had his eyes fixed on the large, black creature above them and had been, somehow, able to see it the whole time that he'd known it was there. One arm was tightening in Thor's shoulder, almost as if the trickster was digging his nails in there and the other thrown high directly above Loki's head. Pouring from it was a white magic that acted a lot like lightning, making the same noise.

But it didn't give Thor that tingle on his tongue- it couldn't have been lightning.

Once the spell was done, Loki slid off of Thor and smashed arse first into the dirt below him, shining, dead leaves glowing in the reflection of the black mess above them that had somehow burst into flames and was now screaming and trying to stay in the air while swishing around from side to side.

With Loki off of his back, Thor straightened and moved away, Mjolnir ready, looking up in the direction the large ball of fire was burning.

A crow. A giant crow.

An attack from above, why hadn't he seen that? Oh right, that was Loki's line of work.

Then Thor was thrown openly into another moment when thinking didn't matter.

Loki would never openly admit it, but he loved that about his brother. When it came to a moment when someone's life was in danger, Thor did something Loki would never be capable of doing. And that was acting in such a right way without thinking a second on it. He was also very grateful that Thor managed to act that way at the moment the crow found him.

Bloody red eyes narrowed on him, his face glowing in the flames that spluttered from its open, oily feathers and it was reflected in those animal orbs. His fear. His open mouth. His hands in the dirt as they tried to scramble away when it just dropped out of the tree branches toward him, break sharpened and gleaming for the kill.

It was a heavy bird. And when Mjolnir smashed into the side of it, it veered its course by only a few inches, and Loki watched it still come towards him in a burning ball of fire. Jogging his hands up over him, he protected himself with his arms over his face, bare skin and brown brackets gleaming in the firelight.

As it smashed into the ground beside him, Loki could only feel the heat and the smell of burning bird as he was showered with dirt before he managed to roll away from where the burning corpse had landed toward other trees before something grabbed the back of his cloak and yanked him up from the ground.

It was Thor. It was always Thor.

Now, with the burning corpse, all six of them could see their surroundings flickering as the black feathers began to melt down into nothing. Each mouth was opened as they took breaths, shoulders shivering with each intake of stinking air, gleaming eyes focused on the remains. Adrenaline and shock had delayed voices.

After staring at the bird with a mixture of shock and hatred Thor's hands tightened around Loki's shoulders like a clamp, his younger brother still looking at the bird like a goldfish.

Managing to turn Loki away from him, he shook his brothers shoulders a few times to gain attention from his younger brother, who's glowing eyes were still watching what had almost impaled him to the forest floor. "Loki? Loki!" He said it a couple more times, bringing a hand to his brother's cheek in a gentle smack until the wild green eyes focused on him. "You need to listen to me very carefully. Are you hurt?"

For a few seconds the brother just stared back at him before the open mouth snapped shut and swallowed, eventually managing to nod a few times dismally and then take a loud, gasping breath. "No blood, no foul." Then Loki's eyes hardened and his hands made an angry lunge for his brothers neck, which Thor had anticipated.

He grabbed a hold of Loki's wrists while Sif put a blade to Loki's back. Loki's wrists were breakable anyway…

"You insolent oaf, how could you not see that monster had been following you?" Jerking around, Loki freed himself of Thor's grip, throwing his hands down on his knees as he took several heavy breaths, eyes closed, as sweat slid down from his brow to drip off the end of his nose.

"Following us?" Sif asked before Thor could, sliding her knife inside of a pocket that hung around her thigh, brown, with patterns hand-sewn into it. "How would you know that?" Her grey eyes looked toward Thor in a smug look, but her arms also crossed in a way of distrust toward Loki and Thor was caught between feeling done-by or getting angry.

The young prince straightened. "Yes, I heard the flapping the moment I woke up and it was no stranger to seeing you all there. It only attacked when I spotted it. You also smelt of it, it's been following you for a long time…" Now it was just a pathetic burning pile on the floor. "It could be reporting to bigger threats…"

Unhelpfully, from the side, Volstagg asked, "So that wasn't what was suppressing you before?"

Taking some more time to breathe by leaning against a tree in Thor's shadow from the crow, Loki fixed a snake glare on Volstagg. "Of course not you fat imbecile. That thing was easy to defeat, whatever is crushing me has to be at least ten times that's power." Swallowing, he rubbed his lip with his finger again. "We're best off not pissing if off, understand?"

Looking over at the burning bird, Sif said, "It's impossible to keep track of time here. What happened when you went back?"

"It was day, still. The sun had only just risen and there were a few servants waiting for me before I even got inside, so I just dropped the horses off with them," Loki explained, moving over to look at the bird as well.

His eyes narrowed suddenly.

"Why does it have blood on its beak?" Loki asked, though it wasn't really the question he wanted to ask as the red liquid held a golden glow in the flames near the birds dead, red eyes. The question he wanted to ask was 'who's bleeding' but he had to be more subtle than that.

From where he was curiously poking the bird with his foot, Volstagg said, "It attacked you…" His red beard moved while he talked, but he never once turned to look at Loki and the god didn't doubt Volstagg was wondering whether the crow would taste like chicken.

Hiding behind the giant, away from the bird, Fandral, who seemed to have had a little bit of a scare, just said, "You and Thor were the only ones near it."

Nearly all eyes fixed on him, apart from a blue pair. He noticed the lack of them immediately.

Twisting his mouth into a grim line, his gaze turned toward Thor, unimpressed but more so plain. A trickster never showed when they were concerned. "I know I'm not bleeding." His eyes were black from the little camp fire they had as they fixed hard on Thor's face.

Sheepishly, the warrior raised the hand wielding Mjolnir and the Warriors Three along with Sif hissed as they all pulled their bottom lip between their teeth (minus Hogun of course). "When I hit it my hand got in the way." It was a stupid explanation, and came out sounding even more idiotic than it was, but the others got the idea.

So much red was dripping down from Thor's hand, sliming over his knuckles and pattering as it splashed dead, sparkling leaves near his feet that the colour- whatever was in there- drained out of Loki's face just to look at it.

And the God of Mischief felt guilty.

As if he would ever show it. Loki's face remained plain, but obviously upset. No smile. Grey, pressed lips and eyes focused on the blood as it dripped. Only close people knew this was the face Loki wielded when he was upset mostly at himself, and reaching out he grasped both of his hands around Thor's one hand and his hammer, moving forward so that he could relax his elbows at his side.

"You need to work on fighting without sight," Loki said. "You'll spar with me with a blindfold when we get back." His words were literally law. In this case they were, and Thor did not object to them.

When Loki's hands clasped tighter, small and so pale compared to Thor's, the god tried not to wince, but it was painful when his knuckles were slashed open and bleeding. The added pressure of his hammer helped none. But, when looking up at his brother's plain face, he didn't complain because he knew _Loki felt bad_.

Despite knowing his brother was watching him; Loki refused to get the odd feeling of getting embarrassed. Instead, he focused completely and let his eyes drop closed again, completely relaxing his face as he put every shred of energy he could muster into the palm of his hands. They grew warm, like the flames that had been used to destroy the bird.

Lips twitched and eyebrows creaked as Loki continued to focus on the larger wound and, this time, a white glow began to emanate through his two hands, leaking into Thor's.

Healing his own wounds was a simple task. Others required more energy.

When it was done, Loki blinked as he tried to regain sight while the world cruelly spun before him, laughing almost at his weakness. Growling he dropped his hands immediately and pulled back, leaning forward with fingers on his chin only to admire his handiwork.

Not even a scar.

Swinging his hammer over casually to his other hand. After all, throwing a piece of metal nobody else could wield or could break their arms trying from one hand to the other through the air with a little bounce at the end was nothing. Dropping the hammer then casually at his feet, Thor began to rub his hand, trying to get rid of the new numbing feeling that had washed over it.

Lightly, he also found it appropriate to joke, "That's your fifth spell today, brother. I hope you don't have a limit."

"Depends on how much energy I use," Loki said, carefully, turning back to look at the bird. He would never thank Thor for what he did for him, but then again so long as Thor didn't thank him for fixing his hand he had no reason to get guilty about it either. "I also took it upon myself to do a bit of research on the way back. People have gotten to the end of this forest before and some have made it back…" His voice lowered. "But many did neither."

Eyes practically burning from the fire, Sif fixed her gaze on Loki as she came to stand next to him, arms still crossed. "Know what we should be afraid of?"

Moving to look past her, Loki winced at the sight of the bird. "More like the crow. Whatever power dwells here in the forest must be in slumber. Research told me naught about evil forest giants." He then looked past the crow to the awaiting darkness and narrowed his eyes. "I suggest we keep on going and be careful not to go in a circle until we reach the other side."

Thor crouched down and tried to follow Loki's gaze but saw nothing but the first line of trees.

Giving up, the god just turned to his brother, still crouched and said, "You said you can see, right?"

"Well, yes," Loki said. "But you have to remember I'm a sorcerer of black magic. It's not unusual I can see and you can't. Naturally these trees are tall but thin so light should be pouring into it. Some sort of spell is preventing the light from getting in- probably to keep the creature sleeping…"

Again his comrades gave him blank stares.

Sighing, Loki thought of a new way he could explain this. A way even Thor would understand.

Oh boy.

Straightening, Thor turned to the five serious eyes on him. "Many things threaten Asgard in its own realm. There is a reason these parts of Asgard haven't been discovered and that is because something is preventing them from being discovered." More blank looks. "Soldiers are being killed." That they understood. "But, also, these powerful things would have already rained war on Asgard, correct?"

"I don't see where you're going," Thor admitted, getting a few mumbles of agreement.

Breathing, Loki said, "We're not the first in these woods. And, if my feelings are correct, something a lot more powerful than most of us sleeps in these woods. Our father wouldn't allow such a big threat to survive and would've killed it, so to remain undetected it's put itself to sleep and put this spell over the forest."

Nodding to him, Sif asked, "You figured that out on horseback?"

"I read books," Loki said, shortly. "Apparently something very powerful used to exist in these woods and was a threat and one day just disappeared so soldiers stopped coming. I got crushed. It's still here, it's just hiding; I don't want to wake it up…"

People seemed to understand now and Thor asked, "So because it's being guarded by a spell, you can see?" A finger was jabbed in Loki's direction and the younger god looked at it like he wanted to break it so Thor subtracted it.

Nodding, Loki said, "It's an old spell and I guess trained eyes can see through it. But that isn't the point. The point is something unknown and dangerous is hiding here. Our upside is it was scared of our people so is, hopefully, sleeping." Loki made it very clear. "We wake whatever monster is sleeping in here and we are dead."

When Loki looked at Thor his hopes dropped. Judging by the dazzling lights flashing in his brothers misty, river eyes he'd lost Thor somewhere along the way of 'unknown and dangerous' and probably with 'scared of our people' too.

Moving toward his brother, Thor looked around the forest in awe, as if the monster would pop out at any minute, and whispered, "Do you think that more things are hiding out there? Slumbering? Scared of us?"

"Yes." Loki flicked his brother's forehead. "And if we make it out of the woods for the rest of the quest you must not purposefully wake these things up either."

From the look in his brothers eyes Loki knew Thor was itching to object.

Probably because Thor would get bored if he didn't kill a thing or two.

Swift. Loki was swift. In one quick movement his hands, which had been by his sides, had gleamed through the fading light and pressed an index finger against the parting lips, causing Tor to clamp them down tight again. "No. You can kill as many crows as you want."

That seemed to satisfy Thor. Only a little.

And Loki didn't doubt that Thor would, on many occasions, accidently awake a sleeping monster as well. This _was_ Thor they were talking about.

Their father sent them on this quest to explore parts of Asgard never explored before for only a handful of reasons. Loki and Thor would need to work together while one of them, which was obviously going to be Thor, was on the throne and the other advising him and this should bring some good cooperation. It would toughen the two of them up. Thor would have gone on a nice, long adventure and hopefully stop begging to go to other realms for a long, long time. Loki would have more knowledge to do… what… Loki did with it.

But, there was an important one.

A most important one.

That one was that Odin _knew _there were things out there. Loki knew this for a fact because their father had said to the two of them they'd meet many fearful giants on their quest. And Odin knew they were out there. Knew everything about them. Probably, he wanted them gone and could trust his two sons to do it. Together, they were unbeatable.

Why else send them out in the middle of nowhere? Thor was annoying and loud, but not _that_ much.

In the lack of speaking everyone other than Loki was exchanging looks; looks Loki was glad they were exchanging.

He'd come on this journey to be with Thor.

He'd also come on this journey to assure the other didn't get killed by the dangerous out there. He was the statistical one. Judging by the pale look on Thor's face and the horrified danger after the crow, most of the people here had assumed it would just be like a quest to one of the other nine realms for a quick clash.

Almost everyone here had assumed they'd be up against something they already had understanding of.

Either Hogun did and wasn't showing or, not being an Estir, knew of the many dangers that were lurking out there. Sif also didn't look surprised.

Loki was very, very glad he'd had this talk with them. Maybe now the Warriors Three-minus-Hogun and Thor would be a bit more careful.

Breathing deeply, Loki moved around in a careful circle, turning his back to the others who had flicked their eyes over to him when he'd begun moving. Loki didn't look over his shoulder or tilt his head so that his voice reached them with ease. His head just moved along with his body as he continued hiking through the woods in the fading light of the fire, away from the burning corpse. His shoes squelched on some parts of the ground from blood.

About four steps away from Thor, facing a misty darkness, Loki said, "We should keep moving." At those words he brought his palm out next to him, forcing his fingers up so that his hands roughly resembled a simple flower.

The trickster made it seem like nothing when he summoned a small, round white ball of pure light in his hand, holding onto it like it was a real orb. In fact, he only hesitated to make it and then continued pursuing forwards in the woods, as if afraid to stay in one place for too long.

Wisely the others began to follow him and Thor gave brisk nod, sucking on his lips, arms swinging and went. "Yes. Moving forward…" Stopping low to pick up Mjolnir, Thor joined the back of the line of walkers, focusing purely on Loki's light. "How long until we're out of these woods?"

Loki's answer was called back to him a little uncertainly. "Probably only another half an hour or so, it's a long woods, not a thick one."

Thor had absolutely no clue what Loki meant when he said that. But as long as it was some sort of explanation that meant they didn't have to trudge around in this creepy, already explored woods any more than they had to and could just get on with their quest quicker than Thor honestly didn't care that Loki's words had gone straight over his head.

* * *

They'd been wandering for another hour, and this seemed to be concerning Loki. Everyone could see it. Even the little ball that Loki held in his hand kept flickering, and the gaps between each attack were getting shorter as it began to dull in the palm of the sorcerer's hand.

Though, whether that was from being distracted or whether Loki was running low on magic batteries nobody knew.

Soon the young god stopped between two trees, leaned against one, and looked forward out of the woods. Judging by the open mouth and the long, pink tongue, dancing like a snake, that drew along Loki's quick-flashed teeth with each pant Loki was beginning to get tired. His eyebrows were open to judge the forest, but they narrowed and then Loki looked around at the darkness that surrounded them quickly.

Moving forward in a casual saunter, Thor drew fingers through his right hand and brought them down on Loki's open wrist as the other had his head turned away, causing Loki to snap his mouth shut and turn his head before turning most of the rest of him around so that he was sort-of facing the others, but his eyes, black again from the light, just moved from Thor's fingers on his palm to the demi-god's face.

Thor's fingers dusted over the ball of light, which rippled where he touched it. "How does this fare for you? You seem to struggle with it."

"Hah…" It was a hiss, and Loki's hand twitched into a fist by his side while he half-turned away from Thor, his face tightening with that hiss. "The spell blocks light. I'm having to fight it to let this shine," Loki explained carelessly and the orb flickered again, this time flicking out before bursting back into life.

Judging by the anger in Loki's face he wasn't impressed by the fact he was wasting his energy to light up the way.

The face quickly relaxed and Loki nodded up ahead, "I think the ending's just up there. I can see light."

At his words, everyone else turned, and even their own Estir eyes could see the drizzle of light ahead when Loki's orb began acting up again playfully, the distant glow enough to make Thor smile as he saw, what everyone hoped, was the ending.

"Then what are we waiting for?" Thor cried gleefully, his hand tightening around Loki's wrist to drag him along as the god began to take small steps toward the light, as if he couldn't believe they were finally out of the dark and seemingly endless woods at long last. Each footstep he pressed down seemed louder than before as Thor pulled his younger brother along.

Growling and muttering under his breath, Loki seemed to have no such intention to run his way out of the woods as his bare fingers gripped for the tree he was trying to stay attached to, resisting Thor's pull by bending down and making his weight feel heavier. "Don't be so lou-"

_Pop! _

Loki's orb had exploded off and everyone was plunged into darkness, lighting up the exit even brighter for them.

It would have been a magnificent moment had a loud thud not of reached absolutely everyone's ears as leaves wailed and twigs snapped loudly beneath whatever had crashed into the ground. Thor felt the pull in his arm before everyone else could piece together what had happened and his shoulder cracked from the odd angle it had been yanked down at and Thor was forced to turn and fall with it.

His feet swivelled in the ground as he stumbled backwards, then bent low and turned, almost crashing into the ground had he not let go of Loki, the very thing that had dragged him down in the first place, and planted his hands into the dirt and rocks. It was either that or smash clean into Loki.

Giving a gentle laugh, the lack of light was still adjusting to Thor's eyes and for the moment he was, once again, rendered completely blind, not that he minded. "Did you trip over a root brother?"

His eyes adapted. And nobody liked what they saw.

Loki was propping himself up on his elbows casually, but his entire body was shaking as if being crushed together by some sort of invisible wind from every direction and he seemed to be hardly able to breathe, croaking noises escaping from his throat and hissing noises from his mouth as he tried to stop himself being completely flattened on the ground. Neither of his hands held him up, for both were wrapped around his throat tight, massaging it while at the same time trying to pry out whatever was blocking his air passage, face a mixture of anger and pain.

Although Thor could move, just looking at Loki seemed to prevent any of this coming to mind. He found he could only move his lips. "Brother?"

Bright green eyes jumped up to him after having been staring down at nothing. Eyebrows were pulled together taunt, wrinkling other parts of Loki's face. Eyelashes were blinking quickly to blink away tears that threatened to brim in the corner of Loki's blood-shot eyes. His iris' told most of the story, striking Thor with a heavy amount of pain and fear.

Yet, it seemed Loki tried to warn him with his eyes of something bad.

Seeing as this wouldn't be enough, Loki licked his lips carefully and managed to choke out, "The monster…"

Then he was unconscious.

It was like Loki threw himself backwards onto the floor or something barrelled under Thor and smashed into his face, sending him flying. Luckily, Thor was quicker to move this time, and grabbed onto his brothers shoulders before the other could be flung back into the dirt, yanking him against his chest as he managed to get off of his knees by swaying backwards and forwards as he got higher into the air.

With no time to turn Loki around, he held the young boy by his chest, one arm slid under the boys shoulders, his arms over-lapping, and the other clasped under Loki's knees while Thor, yet again, placed Mjolnir on Loki's stomach. It made no difference to weight and Loki remained quite comfortably sleeping in Thor's arms.

Sleeping, however, meant breathing.

Something Loki wasn't doing.

And Thor could only stare down at Loki's face with a mixture of fear and horror as his brother's unmoving lips began to taint blue.

"He's being crushed Thor!" Sif's voice came like an angry beehive from the corner of his brain, buzzing in his ear, as she threw himself between the trees to where they'd collapsed and barrelled into him, forcing him forwards toward the exit. "The monster must have awoken from its slumber. He's dying. Run!"

With Loki's body slowly growing colder in his arms and a possible monster coming to get them now Thor had never run faster in his life. He avoided trees like he was lanky and swift like Loki as the light from the exit of the woods beamed down on them. Thor was surprised he couldn't be distracted by his thousand thoughts.

His thought of 'I hope this is the exit'. His thought of 'I hope Loki's okay'. And his more primitive thought of 'I swear on Asgard if Loki dies I will take home this monsters head as a trophy and burn these woods to the ground'.

Surprisingly enough they managed to cover the ground from the trees to the exit in only a couple of seconds while running. It would have surely been a few more minutes had they of walked, but Thor burst into the light quickly, listening to the others catch up with him.

He didn't stop to admire the rolling mountains in front of him, mist circling their highest peaks with pride and a waterfall cascading down between two to the bottom where a lake sat, sweet suspicious melody's rising from below as strange birds circled around the waterfall, their nests behind its great path downwards.

Instead, he threw Loki down on the grass below him and began to shake his brother by the shoulders hard, a cut on his face stinging from where he's smashed through sticks and branches to get out of the woods.

Still, Loki would not breathe.

"Loki! Loki!" His name was repeated with a mixture of curses, of promises, of threats and still the god's eyelids wouldn't even muster a twitch.

His skin was becoming colder by the minute, its normally creamy white texture becoming savage and ice-like, dry, like it could crack at any minute. His lips were stained blue now, and the colour was spreading to other parts of his body, turning his cheeks a dull lilac colour as his eyelids started to sink with his cheeks. His hair, thrown out behind him, was lifeless in the pleasant breeze and his chest was flat, like every one of Loki's ribs had been slowly cracked inside of him until everything else had to slid downwards and leave a dip.

Behind him screaming prevailed as the Warriors Three and Sif began to argue with each other loudly, though to Thor it was just mindless bother in the back of his head.

All that mattered to him was Loki was dead. He'd failed his promise to mother.

Something small, round and clear fell on Loki's lips, spreading like it was liquid. Salty liquid. And it dropped from Thor's eyes as the tears dripped pathetically from the side of his eyes. His mouth was open but everything inside was motionless other than swallowing, his eyebrows drawn into a frown as if he couldn't believe it. No. He wouldn't believe it, and shook his head a few times, looking down at Loki's unmoving body.

No-one was shocked that Thor was crying for his brother's death but seeing Thor cry was a rare thing. In fact, Hogun had to look away. "Sif…" Her head snapped up. "Please Sif. Help me. I know not what to do…"

It was not against her better judgement. Sif and Loki didn't get along. She didn't hate him.

She wasn't the kind of person to just leave someone to die.

"Listen to me you bastard!" She wailed as she threw herself down on the soft grass next to Thor, it bouncing beneath her then kneeling under her weight as she leaned over Loki, looking down at his lifeless face that continued to sink below their very gaze. "Don't you dare die on Thor! You understand me? Wake up!"

They were running out of time.

Although it seemed violent, if the hard slap to the cheek that Sif gave Loki next didn't wake him up, and nor did screaming, she was going to have to move onto something else. The smack echoed throughout the air though and the Warriors Three all winced, but Thor didn't seem to mind much as it brought a flood of colouring back into Loki's cheek. It swelled and got rid of the hollow feeling. Then Sif brought her hands down on his chest and began to push in a rhythm.

Blowing a black lock of hair that had spiralled into her face out of the way on her red lips, she breathed to Thor as she continued to pump her hands above where Loki's heart was, "Give him air. You need to give him some air Thor."

Although Thor didn't often think much, he knew what she meant. He'd seen her do it Fandral once and, sure, it had haunted his nightmares a few times after that, but Loki was his brother. And Loki was dying. And Thor didn't care about anything other than that.

Pinching Loki's nose (and Thor silently told himself Loki would kill him after this) he sucked air into his mouth and also leaned over Loki after shuffling his knees to the other side, pressing his lips to Loki's carefully.

Somewhere in the background Volstagg choked on his own spit. Unhelpful.

Since it wasn't a kiss, Thor couldn't risk enjoying it like it was one. Nor could he use it for blackmail later. After all, Loki was dead. His lips were cold, soft like petals, but freezing by now and there was a lack of pulse in them. Prying the younger man's mouth open with his tongue was also a new experience, but Loki's mouth was dry as Thor pushed the air from only his mouth in then pulled back, Sif's pumping increasing as the clock began ticking down.

As she was working so hard and fast, Thor decided it would be wise if he did the same and began repeating his own pattern until the most blissful thing happened.

When his tongue pushed into Loki's mouth to give him more air teeth bit down on it. Hard.

The sudden raised chest against his own meant more than Thor could even describe as he shook, Sif moving her hands from below Loki quickly when the other began breathing on his own but when the green eyes snapped open and met with blue ones… that happened to still have their tongue wedged in Loki's mouth.

"_Ah!_"

As soon as Loki unclenched his teeth and Thor could pull back, the god quickly did so, sitting on his knees as Loki scrambled away from him, spluttering and cursing and spitting as he frantically began rubbing his mouth with the back of his hand, his scream rolling along the hills as the young god took in every breath deep and heavy, making a face as he did, pressing his other hand to his ribs where Sif had pushed.

Wincing as he sat up, Loki fixed angry green eyes on Thor and Sif, who had collapsed against each other in large bubbles of laughter. Her hair was wild, falling into her face, and she kept rubbing her wrists while Thor just seemed to be shaking from relief.

Loki didn't see this. Didn't see their laughter of relief. He glared at them.

"Care explaining what in the name of Hel you just did?" His eyes grazed over his brothers face as he blushed, looking at the slim cut that rested on Thor's cheek, a fine slip of blood dripping down the side of Thor's face and messing in with his beard as the other continued his jolly laugh, his entire body trembling as he seemed to lean on Sif for support.

Instead of the two giggling fools speaking up it was Fandral, standing a few steps away seeming to be rubbing at his eyes. "You died."

Leaning forward, Loki gave Fandral a look of disbelief, his eyebrows knitted together as his mouth fell open, but he quickly clicked it closed. "I beg your pardon?" He asked, sharp, his head moving with every one of his words as his dusted cheeks began to grow redder, it spreading across his high cheekbones.

Loki seemed to find the need to support himself on the ground while he carefully breathed in and out, each breath hurting and stinging his lungs, like the air was far too cold for him to breathe in. And his ribs ached. Lying down on the ground, Loki stared up at the sky below them and pieced together the pieces himself.

Nobody else here seemed good at explaining things.

It was almost as if they relied on Loki's keen sense of knowledge to figure things out all the time.

Moving his hands over his eyes, Loki pushed down with the palm of his hands, the throbbing of stress and tiredness bobbing in the back of his eyeballs again. Pushing down applied pressure with relieved the pain as he groaned, also blocking out the real sunlight from him, taking deep breaths on the smooth, clean grass,

Soon the laughter died down and Loki sat up, moving his knees aside to lessen the pain spiking again in his ribs, looking between the two who were now red-faced.

"So," He said to the only two capable people here. It was no lie he trusted Hogun more than he trusted them for this sort of thing, but Hogun wasn't a talker. "I got crushed in the woods and stopped breathing?" Nods. "You carried me out here?" More nods. "And revived me?" A final nod.

Leaning back down on the grass, Loki drew his knees together then stretched out his legs on the cool grass with a sigh puffed from his lips as he put on hand behind his head, the other resting on a swollen cheek.

He'd inquire about that later.

Groaning, he muttered, "Why did Thor have to be the one to breathe in my mouth?"

"It would've been weirder letting one of us do it," Sif said simply. "And did you really want to trust him pumping your heart? With me you've probably got bruised ribs aside to broken ones…"

Silence. It seemed Loki had lost the will to fight.

Everyone slowly slithered to lying on the ground staring up at the sky, shaking and breathing relieved from yet another, more terrifying scare. While everyone else seemed to sit near the edge and talk about the water below them and the beauty, Thor had shuffled so that he was lying directly next to Loki, who still seemed a little flustered from before.

Rolling his head to the side, Thor glanced at Loki, who seemed to be purposely ignoring him and sucking on his lips. "It wasn't like I was kissing you, brother."

"Yes it was," Loki quickly resorted, his cheeks becoming red again.

Lolling the rest of his body over with a loud clanking noise and the squeak of leather, Thor brought his hand to his brother's cheek, forcing Loki to turn to look down toward him.

Eventually, the god smiled. "What do you want?"

Swallowing, Thor pressed his hand to Loki's swollen cheek carefully. "I was scared, Loki." The other god frowned at him. "I was so scared I was going to lose you. I will never let you go. Never." He felt Loki's eyes scan the tearstains on his cheeks and red, puffy eyes and watched the gentle smile relax into a happier one as he looked at Thor.

"You didn't lose me," Loki said, pushing himself up with one hand, Thor's other hand stubbornly trying to remain on his cheek, so the god himself also pushed himself up, sitting in front of his brother, his mind still blown from his experience. "So calm down."

Blinking away more tears, Thor brought his other hand to his brothers other cheek as they sat side by side, Loki's other hand resting down by his knee as his fingers played with his hair carefully. "Don't scare me like that again." Those words were the only warning Loki got before he was pulled into a hug.

Sliding easily into Thor's lap, Loki rolled his eyes. Luckily for Thor, he decided he would let this one go from his revenge list for now.

Swaying gently from side to side with his hands moving in Loki's hair, Thor seemed comfortable having the weight that was Loki in his arms while Mjolnir sparkled a few feet away from him, continuing to guard Loki for him while he allowed himself to be distracted. Fingers brushed through the silky, black locks carefully and breathed in the delicious smell Loki always had in his hair.

Resting his head against Thor's breast plate, Loki closed his eyes with sigh, his ribs still hurting from Sif's hard work reviving him. But Loki didn't doubt for one second he would always remain safe here with his brother and allowed Thor to play with his hair to his heart's content as he melted in his brothers arms.

"Did it wake up?" Thor mumbled against the silky hair, his lips finding Loki's forehead in a relaxing kiss.

Loki slid open one heavy lashed eye to look up at Thor's neck where he was nuzzled, frowning for a second, before his lips pulled into a comforting smile when he realised what his brother was talking about. "No. I was just distracted by the light in my hand that I opened myself accidently and couldn't put up my defences in time. I think it's still sleeping, but I can't sense from here."

Admitting, Thor said, "I was going to find it and kill it if you died and burn the woods to ashes."

"I'll take that as a compliment, "Loki said, "not funeral plans." The two exchanged a chuckle that felt odd when one was sitting in the others lap before Loki squeezed his lips closed again, his pink tongue flashed between them, and dully said, "Sif slapped me in the face, didn't see?"

Thor's laughter shook Loki in his lap. "Yes. Does it hurt?" Concern leaked into Thor's voice as he began to grab Loki's face and try to get a look at it.

The trickster slapped his hands away. "Not really…" He glared. "Don't baby me just because of what happened today. I'm a grown man Thor." The words were solid and accusing and Loki's eyes were once again fuelled by the fire that said that if Thor went against his words and made Loki feel inferior in any way he'd wake up with ants literally in his pants.

Of course Loki understood Thor was alpha, if not Sif, but if anything changed at all Thor would have no hair left to turn into snakes.

Their embrace and possible argument was caught sort when Fandral called, "Loki? What're these down here in the water?"

Moving himself from Thor's lap, the other sneered down at Thor when he stood over the man, before slinging his boots to one side so that Thor could follow him. The grass bowed around Loki, not under him, clearing a path for him as he began his small tread down the grassy cliff to where the three idiots and one of his saviours were crouched behind a large grey boulder looking down the sheer drop of death toward whatever had caught their eye.

Loki swayed like a twig in the wind.

On the other hand, Thor sprung up from the grass with energy and began skipping along to his friends like a dog.

Bending down beside Thor's friends behind the boulder (as Loki was still recovering and did not feel to plunging down toward his death) and followed when Fandral had very helpfully turned to point down at things below them.

Seriously? "Fandral, those are sirens. Human's use to rumour about them on Midgard. They're dangerous. Don't go near them."

Everyone knew what a siren was. And Fandral stopped checking them out immediately.

"We should keep moving," Loki said, his ribs still aching, and was about to stand up when a slender hand wrapped around his skinny wrist and yanked him back down again. "Ow! Sif!" He complained as he was forced to remain crouched behind the rock, looking back into those hard steel eyes of Sif.

She said, "Let's rest."

Nobody disagreed.

* * *

**A/N: Wow. Didn't expect this chapter to be so big. I've been working on it for about three days now writing and probably spared a day on it going through re-reading and correcting and adjusting. I have to be my own Beta.**

**I'm not sad to say I've fallen in love with Tom Hiddleston. Not only for Loki, but he's English, close by, oh yeah. Everyone else is American apart from Chris, but I don't really like Chris. I go for the sickly, dark looking guys now.**

**I used to go for guys like Chris…**

**Have you seen the love Youtube gives to this couple? There are a few good videos out there. I must admit the 'Always Gold' one has lyrics written just for the two of them. I'm thinking of using some of those songs in the future for references like 'I was there when you grew restless' because that was just beautiful. The one that uses Which to Bury, Us or the Hatchet is also a good one. I especially like the words. So fitting. Just every piece of it, really. Go look at it. 'Know I'll Always Love You But Right Now I Just Don't Like You Thor/Loki'. It makes me cry sometimes, it just fits them. Then 'Battle for the Sun' is also another good one. A full video too, unlike the others, uses almost all of the song. Although it seems a little bitter and less romantic, its damn good.**

**Anyway, I credit those vids for giving me inspiration.**

**Please, also review. If you want to troll for my weird imagination, troll. If you want to compliment, please, do. If you're going to leave without commenting then I really have no care for you because you kind of don't really leave any proof of your existence behind, just saying.**

**Goodbye, I suppose. And don't expect a new chapter for quite a while, please. **


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